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BX  5869  .N4  1901  I 

Episcopal  Church.  New  YorkI 

(Diocese).  Sunday  School 
The  Sunday  school  outlook  j 


Cljc  Crppt  Conference  on  itnntiap  ^c|)ool6 


DIOCESE  OF  NEW  YORK 

Rev.  Pascal  Harrower,  Chairman, 

West  New  Brighton,  New  York. 
Rev.  Wm.  Walter  Smith,  M.A.,  M.D.,  Secretary, 

29  La  Fayette  Place,  N.  Y. 
Mr.  H  H.  Pike,  Treasurer, 

134  Pearl  Street,  New  York, 
Rev.  Henry  Mottet,  D.D.  Rev.  Chas.  A   Hamilton,  M.A. 

Rev.  John  P.  Peters,  D.D.  Rev.  Thos.  H.  Sill,  M.A. 

Rev.  E.  Walpole  Warren,  D.D.     Rev.  Ernest  C.  Saunders,  B.D. 
Rev.  David  H.  Greer,  D.D.  Rev.  Frank  F.  German. 

Rev.  Wm.  S.  Rainsford,  D.D.  Nicholas  M.  Butler,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

Rev.  Geo.  R.  VanDeWater,  D.D.  James  Earl  Russell,  Ph.D. 
Rev.  Lester  Rradner,  Jr.,  Ph.D.    Walter  L.  Hervev,  Ph.D. 
Rev.  Wm.  L.  Evans,  M.A.  Mr.  Chas.  W.  Stoughton. 


C]^e  €tvvt  Conference 

held  under  the  auspices  of 

The  Sunday  School  Commission 
Diocese  of  New  York 

May,  1901 


LONGMANS    GREEN     AND    CO, 
91  and  93  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 

LONDON     AND    BOMBAY 
1901 


Copyright,  1901 

by 

Longmans,  Green  and  Co. 


pvtfatt 

The  following  collection  of  addresses,  touching  the 
all-important  subject  of  the  Sunday  School  and  its 
proper  administration  as  an  efficient  School  for  Relig- 
ious Instruction  in  the  fullest  education  of  the  young, 
were  delivered  at  a  Conference,  called  by  the  Bishop 
of  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  under  the  Sunday  School 
Commission  of  that  same  Diocese,  the  latter  part  of 
May,  1901.  The  Conference  has  met  for  three  suc- 
ceeding years  in  the  Crypt  of  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
John  the  Divine,  and  is  therefore  known  as  "The 
Crypt  Conference." 

The  Order  of  the  Papers,  as  read  at  the  Conference, 
is  followed  in  this  Report.  There  were  three  Sessions 
during  the  day  of  the  Conference,  May  20th.  The 
morning  one  was  opened  with  the  Celebration  of  the 
Holy  Communion  by  the  Bishop,  followed  by  his 
Address,  here  printed.  After  the  Service,  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Commission,  Rev.  Pascal  Harrower, 
delivered  his  report,  which  follows.  Succeeding  it 
were  several  admirable  Volunteer  Speakers,  notably 
the  Bishop  himself,  the  Rev.  Alford  A.  Butler,  Dean 
of  Faribault  Divinity  School,  and  Mr.  Hillhouse,  a 
prominent  Sunday-school  worker  of  the  Diocese.  Just 


vi  Cl)c  Crppt  Conference  on  l>untiap  ^cljools 

at  the  close  of  this  session,  two  exceedingly  trenchant 
and  significant  resolutions  were  introduced  and  unani- 
mously carried  by  the  Conference.  They  are  herewith 
reported  in  full: 

Resolved — "That  the  Sunday-school  Commission  of 
the  Diocese  of  New  York  memorialize  the  coming 
General  Convention,  meeting  in  California,  to  the 
effect  that  special  attention  should  be  given  to  the 
training  of  theological  students  in  the  art  of  teaching." 

Resolved — "That  in  the  judgment  of  this  body,  the 
Sunday-school  Commission  should  take  the  steps  neces- 
sary for  the  establishment  of  a  Diocesan  Sunday- 
school  Institute,  equipped  with  a  suitable  teaching 
staff,  and  having  its  permanent  residence,  if  possible, 
in  the  See  House." 

These  resolutions  were  then  signed  by  the  over  400 
members  of  the  Conference  then  in  attendance. 

At  one  o'clock,  luncheon  was  served  in  the  Cathedral 
House,  and  the  formal  opening  made  of  an  elaborate 
permanent  Sunday-school  Exhibition,  prepared  by  Rev. 
Lester  Bradner,  Jr.,  Ph.D.,  of  the  Commission,  to  be 
placed  in  the  See  House  of  the  Diocese,  at  the  close 
of  the  Conference,  as  a  reference  centre  for  Teachers 
and  Superintendents.  It  embraces  every  possible 
device  and  aid,  of  use  in  connection  with  a  school. 

At  the  afternoon  session,  the  papers  were  read,  in 
the  order  printed,  with  little  time  for  volunteer 
remarks, 


IJfcface  vii 

The  evening  session  was  held  at  the  Church  of  the 
Heavenly  Rest,  Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-fifth  Street. 
It  partook  of  a  more  popular  character  than  the  pre- 
vious sessions.  At  its  close,  Rev.  Wm.  M.  Grosvenor, 
D.D.,  Rector  of  the  Church  of  the  Incarnation,  de- 
livered a  few  sympathetic  concluding  remarks,  as  a 
summary  of  the  day's  results.  During  the  entire  Con- 
ference, more  than  500  different  Teachers  and  Super- 
intendents were  present  at  one  or  more  sessions. 
Their  names  were  enrolled,  and  they  were  added  to 
the  Permanent  Register  of  Sunday-school  Teachers 
and  Workers  on  file  at  the  Commission  ofhce. 


ContentjS 


Address  by  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D..  LL.D.  Bishop 

of  New  York i 

The    Present    State    of    Sunday    School    Education,    by    Rev. 

Pascal  |Harrower 4 

The  Obligation   upon    the   Pastor  to   know?  Child-nature,   by 

Rev.  Alford  a.  Butlek,  D.D 22 

The  Desirability  of  a  Systematic  and  Comprehensive  Order  of 
Study  for  our  Sunday  Schools,  by  Rev.  Lawrence  T. 
Cole,  B.D.,  Ph.D 43 

The  Child  and  Christian  Teaching,  by  Prof.  Samuel  T. 
Button,  M.A 59 

Adaptation  of  the  Bible-school  Curriculum  to  the  Child,  by 
Prof.  George  W.  Pease 72 

The   Sunday  School   Commission,    and   the   Education  of   the 

Teacher,  by  Rev.  Wm.  Walter  Smith,  M.A.,  M.D 80 

The  Teacher  and  the   Standard  of  the  School,  by  Malcolm 

McLean,   M.D 89 

The  School  and  the   Forward   Movement  of  the  Church,  by 

Rev.  Lester  Bradner,  Jr.,  Ph.D ,.,,,.,, 98 


^DDte^j^ 


Rt.  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Bishop  of  New  York 


URING  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  in  the 
education  of  the  young  there  has  been  a 
remarkable  progress.  It  is  a  fortunate 
thing  that  we  awaken  to  our  responsibili- 
ties and  awaken  also  to  the  remarkable  mechanism 
of  various  minds.  The  training  of  the  child's  mind 
has  its  possibilities  for  us,  in  trying  to  bring  the 
Church's  work  to-day  into  natural  contact. 

No  mission  of  the  Church,  I  think,  ought  to  be 
more  interesting  to  us  chan  the  mission  of  the  Pastor 
and  the  child's  life;  that  time  when  man  has  been 
especially  charged  with  the  work  of  dealing  fitly  with 
the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  when  it  has  been  hoped 
also,  but  not  realized,  that  it  remains  with  the  teacher 
to  wait  with  joy  and  confidence  for  the  coming  of  the 
great  day  and  its  outpouring. 


2  Ciie  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unliap  ^cl)ool6 

Whatever  you  do  with  the  young  mind  in  the  way 
of  books,  or  with  any  other  mechanical  appliance  by 
which  you  translate  to  him  what  you  want  to  teach 
him,  is  an  influence  which  is  not  so  important  as  his 
soul's.  If  to-day  we  should  go  to  any  one-half  of 
those  people  whom  we  might  select,  whose  souls  had 
never  received  any  spiritual  influence,  outside  the  world 
of  politics,  outside  the  world  of  public  affairs,  and  the 
world  of  business,  outside  of  the  Church,  and  ask 
them  what  early  influence  they  have  carried  with  them 
most  indelibly  through  life,  what  impression  has  proved 
the  most  beneficial,  they  would  probably  relate  some 
incident  in  their  childhood.  That-  is  the  spring  of 
action.  Certain  remembrances  were  fixed  in  my  mind 
of  a  tender,  a  loving,  and  a  vital  ending,  when  I  was  a 
very  little  boy,  and  I  think  I  have  never  outgrown 
them.  Age  has  only  deepened  them,  and  experience 
has  only  pronounced  them  in  their  truth.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  any  of  you  have  read  it,  I  think  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  best  biography  of  modern  times 
is  the  biography  of  Huxley;  because  of  the  great 
spiritual  truths  caused  by  his  splendid  earlier  contacts 
which  came  of  devoted  teaching.  A  curious  thing 
that  came  to  be  true  of  Darwin  came  to  be  also  true 
of  Huxley. 

We  have  also  to  struggle  with  the  problem  of  home 
instruction.  But  again  and  again  there  comes  out  of 
the  past,  into  the  conscience  of  some  one,  the  truth 
that  the  home  is  lacking  in  religious  instruction. 

We  are  to  know  the  meaning  of  the  spirit  in  the 
things  that  Jesus  said.      We  are  to   teach  the  little 


aimrcisfii  bp  Et.  Ecto.  |)fiirp  (IT.  |Jotter,  2).^.,  11.^.  3 

children  from  older  intelligence.  All  this  takes  us 
into  the  loving  conference  with  God,  to  have  the 
thought,  and  the  love  of  those  whom  Jesus,  the  Cruci- 
fied Saviour,  for  love  and  service  of  man,  took,  as 
little  children,  up  in  His  arms,  laid  His  hands  upon 
them,  and  blessed  them.     Amen. 


Cl^c  pvtmxt  ^tatc  of  ^unna^^jscl^ool 
Ctiucation 


Rev.  Pascal  Harrower 

Chairman  of  the  Sunday-school  Commission 

T  is  a  fair  question  whether,  indeed, 
we  have  any  right  to  speak  of  the 
Sunday-school  of  to-day  as  an  educa- 
tional institution.  It  is  called  a 
school,  and  its  ostensible  purpose  is 
to  give  religious  instruction.  But  when  honestly  con- 
sidered, we  shall,  I  think,  agree  that  it  is  most  disap- 
pointing in  its  general  make-up  and  character.  Edu- 
cation has  been  variously  defined,  and  it  is  not  my 
purpose  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  word  itself. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  it  implies  a 
definite  process  by  which  the  child  is  led  on  through 
a  course  of  training  toward  some  definite  and  ascer- 
tainable result.  Its  aim  is  "to  prepare  for  complete 
living."  This  is  secured  when  we  have  so  taught  the 
child,  that  he  at  last  comes  into  the  fullest  and  com- 
pletest  possible  knowledge  of  God,  of  the  world,  and 
of  himself. 


SttJiiresis  bp  13it)i.  pascal  l^arroiucr 


We  can  not  reach  this  end  by  merely  giving  the  child 
a  complete  knowledge  of  facts,  nor  can  we  educate 
him  in  the  highest  sense  unless  we  teach  truth  in  the 
shape  of  doctrine  and  facts.  Education  means  such 
a  development  of  the  child,  as  brings  him  to.  his  man- 
hood with  the  best  possible  preparation  within  himself 
for  the  work  of  life.  Education  is  a  living  process. 
It  is  therefore  a  question  of  the  deepest  importance 
whether  the  Sunday-school  of  to-day  is  doing  its  part 
in  this  sort  of  education.  "Where  there  is  anything 
growing,"  said  Horace  Mann,  "one  former  is  worth 
a  thousand  reformers."  The  child  is  growing,  his 
nature  is  his  own.  We  can  not  change  the  essential 
facts  of  his  being.  He  lays  hold  by  a  divine  instinct 
upon  life,  its  experiences  and  truth.  We  cannot 
change  him  from  what  he  is  in  himself.  But  it  is  ours 
to  lead  him,  to  enrich  his  nature  and  opportunities, 
to  help  him  form  along  right  lines,  to  make  him  what 
God  meant  he  should  become.  This  is  education. 
There  is  nothing  that  so  challenges  the  reverent  atten- 
tion of  the  Church  of  Christ,  as  this  little  child  which 
Jesus  took  and  placed  in  the  forefront  of  His  own 
work. 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  scope  of  this  paper  to 
attempt  a  complete  consideration  of  the  present  state 
of  Sunday-school  education.  It  would  involve  a  much 
wider  range  of  investigation  than  the  present,  and 
fuller  data  than  are  now  obtainable.  I  am  not  aware 
that  any  attempt  has  been  made  upon  a  large,  and,  if 
I  may  so  express  it,  a  national  scale,  to  secure  such 
data.     We  have  had  abundant  statistics  covering  the 


6  dLht  Crppt  Conference  on  ^untiap  ^cl)ool£( 

number  of  scholars  and  teachers,  but  it  has  not  been 
attempted  to  get  at  equally  full  data  concerning  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of  the  institution.  And 
yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  wide-spread  agitation 
of  the  whole  subject  is  based  upon  the  profound  con- 
viction that  the  Sunday-school  is,  to-day,  inefficient 
and  unsatisfactory,  not  only  outwardly,  but  in  the 
quality  of  its  life  and  the  character  of  its  results.  It 
is  not  what  we  want  it  to  be,  nor  doing  what  we  want 
it  to  do,  and  the  childhood  of  the  Church  is  asking  for 
something  better  than  we  have  yet  learned  to  give. 

For  the  purpose  of  this  paper,  let  me  present  s^ch 
statements  and  conclusions  as  bear  more  particularly 
on  conditions  existing  in  our  own  diocese,  and  which 
are  based  on  data  secured  in  answer  to  inquiries  re- 
cently made  by  the  Commission.  These  inquiries 
aimed  to  secure  the  simplest  and  most  definite  state- 
ments of  difficulties  and  conditions,  from  those  who 
are  actually  engaged  in  parish  work.  These  answers 
enable  us  to  make  a  concensus  of  many  separate  judg- 
ments, and,  since  the  Sunday-school  at  large  is  what 
we  are  dealing  with,  this  may  be  regarded  as  in  some 
degree  a  general  statement  of  its  conditions,  its  needs, 
and  their  implied  remedies.  It  is  perhaps  possible  that, 
here  and  there,  may  be  found  some  one  who  thinks 
there  is  in  reality  no  so-called  Sunday-school  problem, 
and  that  all  attempts  to  study  such  a  problem  and  to 
endeavor  to  solve  it,  are  on  a  par  with  other  visionary 
schemes  for  the  solution  of  imaginary  difficulties.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  impossible  to  ignore  any  wide- 
spread dissatisfaction  and  unrest.     Certain  difficulties 


Saurcas  i)p  Kci).  fjascal  |)artotocr 


may  be  thought  purely  local ;  but  when  the  same  diffi- 
culties are  found  fav  and  wide,  in  town  and  country, 
in  the  most  favored  parishes  as  well  as  in  the  weakest 
mission  station ;  when  they  are  felt  by  all  denomina- 
tions and  show  themselves  in  the  discussions  of  public 
educators  everywhere,  then,  certainly,  we  are  not  set- 
ting up  a  man  of  straw  for  the  sake  of  a  more  or  less 
exhilarating  tussle.  Sunday-school  education  is  still  a 
problem.  Let  me  now  ask  your  attention  to  an  analy- 
sis of  present  conditions. 

I.     Organization  and  Grading. 

The  present  organization  of  the  Sunday-school  fol- 
lows strictly  on  old  lines,  in  the  proportion  of  teachers, 
and  the  size  and  arrangement  of  classes.  This  neces- 
sitates the  employment  of  a  very  large  number  of 
teachers,  much  larger  in  most  cases  than  can  be  satis- 
factorily furnished  in  the  respective  parishes.  Taking 
the  total  reported  number  of  scholars  in  the  Diocese 
of  New  York,  including  those  in  the  primary  depart- 
ment, there  is  one  teacher  to  every  eleven  scholars. 
When  allowance  is  made  for  this  department,  the 
teachers  will  be  found  to  be  one  to  every  six  or  seven 
scholars.  This  means  that  the  demand  for  teachers 
is  in  excess  of  any  reasonable  supply,  with  the  result 
not  only  of  an  incessant  appeal  for  teachers,  but  of  the 
necessity  of  employing  many  who  are  qualified  neither 
by  age  nor  by  training  for  the  work. 

Closely  related  to  this  side  of  the  question  is  the 
fact  that  not  more  than  two  parishes  out  of  a  hundred 
have   well   arranged   buildings   for   school   purposes. 


8  CI)c  €rppt  Conference  on  ^untiap  ^cI)oola 

This  fact  is  so  apparent  that  one  of  the  needs  most 
sharply  emphasized  to-day  is  the  construction  of 
properly  equipped  parish  houses.  Outside  of  the 
largest  parishes  it  is  almost  impossible  to  find  such 
buildings,  and  the  massing  of  children  in  their  present 
Sunday-school  rooms  greatly  multiplies  the  difficulties 
naturally  attending  the  work  of  the  school.  For  the 
same  reason,  also,  it  becomes  impossible  to  properly 
grade  the  school.  Yet  nothing  is  more  important  than 
such  grading.  Children  are  not  machines,  to  be  dealt 
with  in  the  same  manner  at  all  points  at  the  same 
time.  The  child  is  out  on  his  voyage  of  discovery. 
However  much  we  may  want  him  to.  follow  the  beaten 
path  of  some  other  soul  before  him,  our  wish  is  idle.  It 
by  worse  than  idle,  because  it  is  a  betrayal  of  the  per- 
sonality of  the  child.  Each  child  must  live  over  for 
himself  the  life  of  man,  finding  himself,  coming  to 
his  own  vision,  growing  into  his  own  faith,  the  lover 
and  worshipper  of  his  own  God.  It  is  the  high  func- 
tion of  the  Sunday-school  to  recognize  this,  and  deal 
with  the  child  accordingly.  It  is  a  task  of  singular 
privilege.  It  must  recognize  the  law  of  the  child's 
development,  and  must  grade  its  teaching  to  the 
progress  of  growth. 

Passing  now  to  the  question  of  lessons,  the  condi- 
tion is  one  of  confusion  and  ignorance.  In  one 
diocese  of  this  State,  seventy  parishes  reported  forty- 
seven  different  leaflets  and  text-books  in  use.  In  the 
diocese  of  New  York  the  number  reported  is  substan- 
tially the  same.  It  is  a  frequent  experience  among 
the  clergy  to  pass  from  one  series  of  lessons  to  another 


9[IiUrc6fii  bp  Ec\).  Ipascal  |)anotocv 


in  the  vain  hope  of  finding  something  satisfactory. 
The  reason  for  this  is  simply  that  there  is,  as  yet,  no 
system  of  lessons  so  arranged  and  edited  as  to  meet 
the  need  of  our  schools.  This  one  fact  is  in  itself  a 
striking  commentary  on  the  present  state  of  religious 
education.  Good  work  in  a  Sunday-school  can  not  be 
accomplished  without  some  carefully  adjusted  system 
of  lessons.  However  carefully  arranged  and  edited, 
no  uniform  lesson  scheme  can  meet  the  case. 

No  one  will  deny  the  earnest  devotion  of  those  in 
our  own  Church  who  have  now,  for  many  years,  set 
forth  what  are  known  as  the  Joint  Diocesan  lessons, 
nor  of  those  in  other  communions  who  stand  as 
sponsors  for  the  International  System.  These  systems 
are  alike  in  failing  to  deal  with  the  child  from  the 
child's  own  standpoint. 

II.     The  Teaching  Force. 

This  falls  under  two  heads — the  Pastor  and  the 
Teachers. 

(i)  The  Pastor. — One  point  strongly  emphasized 
in  these  answers  is  the  confessedly  inadequate  prepara- 
tion of  the  clergy  for  this  department  of  their  work. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  we  of  the  clergy  might  resent 
this  if  it  were  a  criticism  from  the  outside;  but  when 
it  comes  from  within  our  own  ranks,  it  can  not  be  idly 
dismissed.  Granted  the  excellence  of  our  theological 
training,  and  the  presumably  intelligent  purpose  of 
our  theological  schools,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  clergy  are  not  as  thoroughly  educated  for  their 
professional  duties  as  the  lawyer  and  physician   for 


lo  Cl^c  Crppt  Conference  on  §>ttnljap  §)cI)ool£( 

theirs.  Their  training  is  inadequate  in  scope,  import- 
ant lines  of  future  work  are  wholly  ignored,  and  some 
of  the  most  crucial  questions  that  await  the  young 
pastor  are  not  foreseen  and  considered.  Looking 
below  the  surface  of  the  average  pastoral  life,  nothing 
is  more  striking  than  the  sense  of  utter  helplessness 
which  characterizes  the  relation  of  that  pastorate  to 
childhood  and  youth. 

(2)  The  Sunday-school  Teacher. — Let  me  briefly  cite 
certain  difficulties.  We  do  not  secure  the  services  of 
many  who  are  the  most  competent  to  teach.  Those 
who  are  willing  to  teach  are  too  frequently  unwilling 
to  prepare  themselves.  It  is  a  com-mon  criticism  that 
Sunday-school  teaching  is  a  useless  work,  following  no 
intelligent  line  of  progress,  leading  to  no  definite  re- 
sult ;  that  its  environment  and  conditions  are  fatal  to 
thorough  and  satisfactory  service.  The  most  intelli- 
gent of  our  people  often  express  this  opinion  and  re- 
fuse cooperation.  They  argue  from  these  and  other 
facts  the  practical  uselessnesss  of  the  school.  Under 
these  circumstances  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
the  failure  of  the  ordinary  teacher  and  the  frequent 
discouragement  of  the  best.  No  Church-worker  works 
against  greater  odds  than  does  the  intelligent  Sunday- 
school  teacher.  His  enthusiasm  must  be  of  the  heroic 
type,  and  his  ideals  singularly  clear  and  masterful,  in 
order  to  keep  him  steadfast  against  such  discouraging 
conditions.  The  faithless  teacher,  the  indifferent 
teacher,  the  irregular  and  superficial  teacher,  the  self- 
complacent  and  unprogressive  teacher,  the  sentimental 
and  purposeless  teacher — these  there  are,  no  doubt, 


SltHireixfi  bp  Eei).  IJascal  |)arrotocr  ii 

But  it  is  a  fair  question  if  they  are  not  quite  as  much 
the  product  of  the  school  as  they  are  responsible  for 
its  defects.  The  Sunday-school  teacher  of  to-day  is 
the  product  of  the  school  of  to-day.  We  can  not  ex- 
pect it  otherwise.  Indeed,  considering  the  plain  facts 
as  they  stand,  the  average  teacher  is  quite  worthy  of 
the  Church,  quite  worthy  of  her  ministry,  and  quite 
worthy  of  her  prevailing  standard  of  religious  educa- 
tion, as  revealed  in  the  attitude  and  practice  of  the 
Church.  This,  however,  only  forces  the  whole  ques- 
tion into  sharper  prominence. 

III.     The  Home  and  the  Child. 

(i)  A  frequently  cited  difficulty  is  the  indifference 
of  parents,  their  failure  to  appreciate  the  benefits  of 
religious  instruction.  This  is  shown  in  the  irregular- 
ity of  attendance,  the  lack  of  hold  upon  the  child,  his 
own  neglect  of  lesson-preparation.  Many  homes,  and 
by  far  the  larger  proportion,  have  no  regular  family 
worship  or  even  grace  at  meals,  much  less  any  religious 
instruction.  The  child's  religious  education  is  too 
commonly  limited  to  the  learning  of  some  form  of 
bed-time  prayer.  He  is  without  any  true  and  constant 
fellowship  in  his  religious  and  Church  life,  and  the 
custom  of  Church  attendance  with  his  parents  is  only 
rarely  observed.  Questions  of  Religion  are  practically 
left  to  his  individual  choice.  His  religious  life  is  there- 
fore largely  elective  in  matters  of  faith  and  outward 
observance.  The  relation  of  the  parents  to  the  Sun- 
day-school is  one  of  sentiment  and  convenience  rather 
than  of  conviction  and  design. 


12  2ri)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^nntiap  ^cboolsf 

This  attitude,  as  compared  with  that  toward  secular 
education,  is  too  significant  to  be  passed  over.  It  is 
not,  however,  to  be  met  effectually  by  the  condemna- 
tion of  parents,  but  rather  by  the  reconstruction  of 
the  Sunday-school  itself. 

(2)  On  the  part  of  the  child,  the  lines  of  failure 
closely  assimilate  those  of  the  parents.  The  Church 
school  does  not  impress  the  child  educationally.  It 
does  not  appeal  to  him  with  the  same  power  and  clear- 
ness as  does  the  secular  school.  His  interest  in  it  is 
largely  superficial,  and  determined  by  secondary  con- 
siderations. Yet  the  child  is  quick  to  perceive  unreali- 
ties. He  judges  by  comparison  far  oftener  and  more 
keenly  than  we  suspect,  and  the  Sunday-school  loses  by 
comparison  at  many  points,  until  its  impression  is 
weakened.  It  has  gone  far  towards  forfeiting  its 
proper  claim. 

So  far  as  the  relative  attendance  of  boys  and  girls  is 
concerned,  up  to  a  certain  age  the  proportion  is  about 
equal.  Beyond  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  the  number 
of  boys  falls  off.  At  this  age  the  boy  is  undoubtedly 
affected  by  the  fact  that  the  attendance  of  men  at 
public  worship  is  comparatively  small.  He  loses  at 
this  critical  period  the  enthusiasm  of  sex-example  and 
fellowship.  But  another  reason  is  the  natural  restive- 
ness  of  the  boy,  and  his  eagerness  to  begin  his  busi- 
ness career.  In  the  public  school  this  tendency  is 
often  corrected  by  lifting  up  the  standard  of  gradua- 
tion and  inspiring  an  ambition  for  further  study. 

In  the  Sunday-school  this  same  remedy  must  be 
applied.      Otherwise  the  propo'-tion   of  scholars  over 


■ 
fifteen  years  can  not  be  increased,  or  even  held  at  its 
present  point.  But  this  period  of  adolescence  is  most 
important.  It  is  the  critical  age  from  which  character 
dates  its  great  allegiances  and  ideals.  It  demands  a 
finer  skill,  an  ampler  wisdom  and  sympathy,  a  more 
powerful  inspiration  and  fellowship  than  other  periods 
of  childhood  and  youth.  The  Church  must  prepare 
herself  to  understand  and  hold  her  youth  up  to  their 
manhood,  if  she  would  hold  them  afterward. 

What  I  have  so  far  said  largely  concerns  the  out- 
ward and  visible  conditions  of  the  school.  When  we 
come  to  the  deeper  question  of  the  child's  spiritual 
growth,  I  hesitate  to  express  myself  too  confidently. 
It  is  the  province  of  the  Sunday-school  to  minister  to 
this  deeper  life.  The  vision  of  God  and  life  which 
comes  to  the  child  must  be  kept  free  and  open. 

The  danger  is  that  this  will  not  be  done,  and  yet  the 
glory  of  the  Sunday-school  must  forever  lie  in  its  power 
to  do  this.  It  is  to  bring  the  child  constantly,  with 
ever  deepening  wisdom  and  sympathy,  face  to  face 
with  God,  so  that  the  child  of  eight  shall  move  onward 
by  a  natural  growth  to  where  the  youth  shall  at  last 
make  his  great  confession  and  find  his  true  inheritance. 
This  can  be  by  no  narrow  repetition  of  words,  but  the 
gradually  deepened  possession  of  God  the  Father,  and 
of  himself  as  the  Father's  child.  Such  work  as  this 
is  not  a  matter  of  cold  statistics,  as  the  reporting  of 
so  many  Confirmations.  It  is  something  which  reveals 
itself  only  in  the  deepened  life  of  the  Church.  For, 
think  of  it  as  we  may,  the  Church  of  to-day,  the  man- 
hood and  womanhood  of  to-day,   are  what  they  are, 


14  CI)c  Crppt  Confcrcnct  on  ^unliap.  ^cboold 

because  the  childhood  of  yesterday  was  dealt  with  as 
it  was.  The  supreme  test  of  that  training  and  edu- 
cation is  found  in  the  richness  or  poverty,  in  the 
strength  or  weakness  of  the  spiritual  life  of  this 
present  time. 

It  is  for  us  of  to-day  to  determine  the  Church  of 
to-morrow,  and  that  must  be  done  now,  in  the  home 
and  in  Sunday-school.  It  is  just  here  that  we  find  the 
wide-spread  consciousness  of  failure  in  our  present 
work,  the  sense  of  unrest,  the  perplexity  of  men 
who  feel  that  they  are  working  in  the  dark. 

IV.     Suggested  Remedies. 

The  preceding  analysis  has  been  made  with  a  view 
to  bringing  out  more  clearly,  if  possible,  the  problems 
that  are  common  to  the  Sunday-school  at  large,  as 
we  find  it  in  all  churches.  For,  however  churches 
may  differ,  the  school  is  practically  the  same  in  town 
or  country  alike,  in  the  largest  parish  or  the  smallest 
village  church,  and  by  whatever  name  it  be  called. 

We  have  simply  inherited  it  from  the  past,  with  cer- 
tain traditional  methods  and  standards.  The  question 
naturally  arises,  "What  are  the  remedies  for  this  pres- 
ent condition  ?  " 

Any  movement  for  the  development  of  the  Sunday- 
school  as  an  educational  institution  must  be  deter- 
mined by  our  conception  of  the  school  itself,  and  its 
place  in  the  life  of  the  Church,  and  how  it  shall  best 
fulfill  its  mission. 

(i)  First,  the  whole  conception  of  the  Sunday- 
school   in   the   mind   of  the  Church   at   large  must  be 


^Mrefiig  ftp  Eet.  IJaccal  fearrotoer  15 

radically  modified.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  school  is 
recognized  already  as  an  institution,  and  that  various 
Associations  and  Commissions  are  in  existence,  and, 
further,  that  a  certain  attention  is  given  to  it  in  re- 
ligious statistics  and  reports;  still,  in  practical  effect, 
the  Sunday-school  is  not  regarded  as  a  serious  and  vital 
factor  in  our  educational  life.  It  is  still  a  place  where 
everything  is  unformed  and  empirical.  There  is  no 
such  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Church  at  large  to  deal 
with  it,  to  study  its  place  and  purpose,  and  to  develop 
its  life,  as  the  State  gives  to  secular  education.  Com- 
pare the  attitude  of  the  State  to  secular  education,  as 
reflected  in  the  existence  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of 
the  University  in  New  York,  with  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  to  the  religious  education  of  her  children. 
The  state  of  religious  education  can  not  be  other  than 
disappointing  under  such  conditions. 

As  matters  now  stand  with  us  in  America,  religious 
and  secular  education  are  practically  divorced. 
Whether  they  will  ever  be  brought  together,  we  can 
not  foresee.  Meanvv-hile  there  has  been  going  on  in 
recent  years  an  earnest  study  of  the  principles  of  edu- 
cation. This  study  has  quite  naturally  expended  its 
efforts  on  the  secular  school.  It  was  so  intended. 
But  the  rich  results  of  this  study  are  waiting  to  be 
taken  up  by  the  Church,  and  they  throw  a  light  upon 
the  Sunday-school  that  lifts  it  immeasurably  above  old 
standards  and  methods.  These  studies  have  empha- 
sized in  an  altogether  stronger  sense  than  was  once 
expected  by  many,  the  importance  of  the  Sunday- 
school  as  a  school  of  religion.     There  is  an  increasing 


1 6  HLht  Crppt  Conference  on  ^ttniap  ^cljooljf 

number  of  eminent  educators  to-day,  who  have  seen 
this  more  clearly  than  the  Church  has  done.  No 
movement  in  our  modern  religious  life  is  more  signifi- 
cant and  fuller  of  promise  than  this  movement  of 
secular  educators  into  the  field  of  religious  education. 
They  come  with  contributions  to  this  Sunday-school 
problem  which  are  of  the  profoundest  importance. 
They  have  laid  open  to  the  Church  the  fatal  weak- 
nesses in  her  relation  to  childhood  and  youth.  Set  if 
you  will,  side  by  side,  the  conception  of  the  Sunday- 
school  as  held  by  the  average  Christian  or  Clergyman 
of  to-day,  and  the  conception  of  that  school  as  held 
in  the  mind  of  the  reverent  and  earnest  secular  edu- 
cator, and  can  you  or  I  doubt  for  one  moment  which 
is  the  higher  and  truer  conception  ? 

(2)  Again  there  is  coming  to  the  front  a  distinctly 
larger  conception  of  the  pastoral  office.  In  the  earlier 
ages  of  the  Church  the  relation  and  responsibility  of  the 
pastor  to  the  child  was  strongly  emphasized.  The  door 
through  which  the  Church  most  effectively  entered 
into  the  life  of  the  world  was  the  door  of  childhood. 
She  laid  her  claim  upon  the  future  by  establishing  her 
faith  and  her  ideals  in  the  minds  of  the  young.  From 
that  day  to  this  her  real  strength  has  been  in  the 
measure  of  her  devotion  to  childhood.  To-day  there 
is  danger  lest  the  Ministry  of  the  Church  deal  too  ex- 
clusively with  older  people.  No  one  will  question  the 
importance  of  the  pulpit.  It  will  always  be,  and,  I 
venture  to  believe,  more  than  ever  before,  a  vital  force 
in  the  life  of  the  world.  But  Christ's  commission  to 
his  ministers  includes  the  ministry  to  childhood.    And 


9tMre£(£!  bp  Keb.  |)a6cal  l^arrotocr  17 

it  is  precisely  here  that  modern  theological  education 
conspicuously  fails. 

There  is  no  branch  of  study  more  important  to  the 
young  student  of  theology  than  that  which  opens  up  to 
him  the  nature  of  the  child.  However  important  it 
be  to  speak  to  the  men  and  women  of  our  congrega- 
tions, the  child  has  his  own  definite  claim,  as  real  and 
insistent  as  theirs.  Let  me  remind  you  of  some  recent 
investigations  into  facts  bearing  on  the  religious  expe- 
rience of  childhood  and  youth,  and  suggesting  what 
has  been  called  the  law  of  conversion,  or  confession  of 
faith.  These  investigations  show  that  by  far  the  lar- 
ger proportion  of  Christians  date  the  birth  of  personal 
faith  from  between  the  ages  of  ten  and  sixteen.  It  is 
to  these  years  of  childhood  and  adolescence  that  the 
pastor  must  carry  his  richest  sympathy  and  deepest 
knowledge.  Whatever  else  our  theological  seminaries 
may  or  may  not  teach,  they  must  take  up  the  study  of 
child-nature.  They  cannot  afford  to  send  out  to  the 
Church  a  ministry  that  stands  in  helpless  ignorance 
before  childhood,  unable  to  deal  with  it,  to  teach  it, 
to  comprehend  with  living  and  powerful  sympathy  the 
experiences  and  needs  of  its  life. 

It  was  to  the  glory  of  Dupanloup,  Archbishop  of  Or- 
leans, and  St.  Charles  Borromeo  of  Milan,  that  both 
these  men  threw  into  the  teaching  of  children  all  their 
splendid  genius  and  consecration.  The  Sunday-school 
would  be  totally  different  from  what  it  is  to-day,  if  the 
Church  gave  young  men  in  her  theological  schools 
proper  training  in  the  art  of  teaching,  and  deeper 
knowledge  of  human  life  as  it  begins  the  mystery  of 


1 8  C?rbc  Crppt  Canfcrtncc  on  :§>untiap  ;§»cf)ool£f 

its  long  and  wonderful  growth  in  the  nature  of  the 
child.  We  speak  of  pedagogy,  and  often  with  some 
impatience,  I  allow,  of  psychology  and  child-study. 
Our  impatience  is  natural,  but  it  is  not  a  wise  impa- 
tience. Have  we  forgotten  that  God  sent  His  Son  to 
us,  not  a  man  full  grown,  but  as  a  little  child  ?  Have 
we  forgotten  that  behind  Christ's  older  life  of  power 
and  wisdom  lay  the  Divine  youth  with  its  own  dreams, 
its  mystic  moments,  its  strange  questionings,  its  own 
enthusiasms,  its  hope  and  its  faith  ?  Have  we  forgot- 
ten that  we  simply  can  not  understand  the  Man-Christ 
till  we  have  gotten  back  into  sympathy  with  the  Boy- 
Christ  ?  Have  \VQ  forgotten  that  truth  and  life  are 
not  things  that  start  from  manhood,  but  have  their 
beginnings  in  the  child-soul,  with  its  own  intuitions,  its 
loves,  its  longings  ?  It  is  there  that  we  must  begin 
our  theologies,  because  it  is  there  that  we  begin  our 
life.  Let  the  schools  of  theology  study  childhood,  let 
them  bring  to  the  chair  of  pastoral  theology  men  who 
are  profoundly  endowed  with  such  knowledge,  let 
them  take  up  the  art  of  teaching,  and  thus  learn  the 
art  of  teaching  religious  truth,  and  the  ministry  of  the 
future  will  wield  a  power  commensurate  with  its  faith 
and  opportunity. 

(3.)  Another  movement  coming  rapidly  to  the  front 
is  that  for  the  training  of  Superintendents  and  Teachers. 
The  work  done  at  Chatauqua,  and  at  the  Bible  School 
in  Springfield,  Mass.,  is  well  known.  Other  efforts  on 
a  less  elaborate  scale  have  been  made.  No  movement 
in  our  own  Church  has  been,  I  venture  to  think,  more 
important  than  that  of  the  Sunday-school  Commission 


SlDUvcfis  fap  Kci).  pascal  |)arraioec  19 

of  this  Diocese.  The  Commission  has,  from  the  be- 
ginning, placed  its  first  emphasis  on  the  teacher,  and 
not  on  the  subject-matter  taught.  In  doing  this,  it  has 
no  doubt  disappointed  the  expectations  of  many.  But 
this  policy  has  been  deliberately  chosen.  Behind  all 
subject-matter  of  instruction  stands  the  personality 
and  skill  of  the  teacher.  If  these  are  below  par  and 
ineffective,  the  scholar  gets  no  inspiration,  no  real  in- 
struction. His  Sunday-school  does  not  greatly  benefit 
him  either  intellectually  or  spiritually.  As  an  institu- 
tion for  religious  education  it  is  wanting  in  the  very 
first  elements  of  power. 

(4.)  Let  me,  at  this  point,  call  your  attention  to  the 
work  of  the  Teachers'  Training  Classes  conducted  by 
the  Commission  during  the  last  Winter  in  New  York 
City.  These  classes  were  established,  not  for  teach- 
ing the  lesson  itself,  but  for  teaching  the  teacher  how 
to  teach.  In  carrying  out  this  idea,  the  Commission 
did  not  concern  itself  about  the  Churchmanship,  or 
even  the  ecclesiastical  affiliations  of  those  who  took 
charge  of  these  classes.  The  one  question  was,  How 
to  give  the  Sunday-school  teacher  the  help  of  the 
trained  educator  ?  It  was  the  art  of  the  teacher,  not 
the  subject  of  his  lesson,  that  we  sought.  Again,  we 
aimed  to  get  at  this  art  of  teaching  in  the  most  practi- 
cal manner  possible.  There  is  much  technical  phras- 
eology connected  with  what  is  known  as  pedagogy, 
just  as  there  is  with  theology.  It  is  a  possible  and 
quite  natural  danger  that  one  may  so  confuse  the  sim- 
ple principles  of  the  art  of  teaching  with  technical 
phrases  and  terms,  that  he  hinders  rather  than  helps. 


20  QL\}t  Crppt  Conference  on  ;§)untjaj)  S>cl)00l6 

It  is  equally  true  in  religion  that  we  can  hide  wisdom 
with  words.  The  Commission  realized  this  danger, 
and  therefore  sought  to  secure  the  services  of  educa- 
tors who  not  only  knew  the  theory  of  their  art,  but 
were  themselves  practical  and  successful  teachers. 

The  success  of  these  classes  was  beyond  our  expec- 
tation. Over  three  hundred  and  fifty  Sunday-school 
teachers  joined  them,  studying  carefully  the  subjects 
presented,  and  many  of  them  voluntarily  took  the  ex- 
aminations prescribed. 

Now,  such  a  movement  is  significant.  It  can  be 
indefinitely  extended.  In  every  large  town  of  the 
Diocese  such  classes  could  be  organized  and  conducted 
with  equal  success.  Enough  has  already  been  done  in 
this  way  to  show  that  it  is  not  only  a  practicable 
scheme,  but  full  of  encouraging  results  in  improving 
the  quality  of  school-work. 

(5.)  In  connection  with  this  line  of  work,  I  believe 
the  time  has  come  when  there  should  be  established 
in  our  great  centers,  like  New  York  and  Boston  and 
Philadelphia,  Religious  Education  Training  Sc/iools, 
which  should  do  for  the  Sunday-school  teacher  what 
the  Teachers  College  does  for  the  secular  teacher. 
From  such  schools  could  be  graduated  the  trained 
teacher  and  the  well-equipped  superintendent.  Ex- 
tensive courses  could  be  arranged  that  would  reach  out 
into  the  remotest  parishes.  In  connection  with  such 
a  school  it  would  be  possible  to  secure  the  necessary 
laboratory  facilities,  or,  to  put  it  less  technically,  some 
one  or  more  schools  could  be  made  the  field  for  the 
application  of  the  best  methods  of  teaching  and  or- 


SlUtiifJXEi  lip  Eel).  |)a6cal  |)arvota)er  21 

ganization.  Such  a  school  might  well  be  one  of  the 
most  important  features  of  the  educational  work  of  a 
great  diocese  like  our  own.  Its  direct  effect  would  be 
to  raise  the  standard  of  the  Sunday-schools.  It  would 
bring  together  and  into  immediate  touch  with  the 
Episcopate  all  who  are  concerned  with  the  cause  of 
education  at  large,  and  throw  an  altogether  new  light 
upon  the  work  of  the  Church  in  the  religious  educa- 
tion of  her  youth. 


Ci^e  ^DlHtgatton  upon  ti^e  ^^ajstor 
to  l^notD  CI^ilD4tature 

B  Y 

Rev.  Alford  a.  Butler,  D.D. 

Warden  of  the  Scabury  Divinity  School,  Faribault,  Minnesota 


%Mm 


O  one  can  read  the  -Church's  Offices  of 
Ordination  without  realizing  that  the 
pastoral  office  is  above  all  else  one  of 
obligation.  The  whole  structure  of  the 
prayer-book  service  is  framed  to  impress  upon  the 
candidate  a  deep  and  abiding  sense  of  his  duties  and 
responsibilities. 

There  is  no  reason  that  I  should  remind  you  that 
the  first  duty  of  deacon  and  priest  is  to  know  God  and 
His  Word,  the  inspired  Word,  the  Incarnate  Word. 
But  I  believe  that  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  next  in 
importance  to  the  study  of  God's  Word  is  the  study 
of  God's  children.  Why?  Because  it  is  the  office  of 
a  pastor  to  bring  God's  Word  and  God's  child  together; 
to  lodge  that  Word  in  the  heart  of  the  child;  to  so 
make  the  Word  a  part  of  the  child's  life  that  they  shall 
become  one  and  inseparable.  And  as  we  know  that 
a  man  cannot  teach  a  truth  which  he  does  not  under- 
stand, so  we  ought  to  know  that  he  cannot  instruct  a 
person  of  whose  nature  he  is  ignorant. 

22 


anUreBfii  fip  Keb.  aiforti  91.  -iSutler,  ^.D,  23 

A  few  months  ago  the  Church  papers  contained  a 
series  of  letters  from  different  writers  bewailing  the 
failure  of  the  Sunday-school  to  properly  instruct  its 
pupils.  Some  of  the  letters  were  thoughtful,  and 
some  were  not.  But  in  every  instance  the  remedy 
proposed  by  the  writer  concerned  only  the  text-book, 
or  the  matter  to  be  taught.  In  not  one  instance  did 
the  writer  indicate  that  the  persons  to  be  taught  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  question.  The  letters  truly 
revealed  a  principal  cause  of  Sunday-school  failure, 
but  not  in  the  way  that  the  writers  intended.  The 
pastor,  who  knows  books  and  not  men,  who  under- 
stands inspired  truth,  but  not  human  nature,  is  like  a 
man  in  the  desert  throwing  precious  water  at  a  collec- 
tion of  bottles  that  are  securely  sealed.  He  may  enjoy 
his  own  activity,  but  the  bottles  are  as  empty  at  the 
end  of  the  performance  as  they  were  at  the  beginning. 
Talking  is  not  teaching,  and  preaching  is  not  edifica- 
tion, though  the  torrent  be  as  loud  and  as  large  as 
Niagara.  To  build  anything,  one  must  know  the  nature 
of  the  foundation  on  which  he  is  to  work.  The  true 
pastor  in  pulpit  or  in  Sunday-school  is  always  an 
instructor.  But  he  is  not  prepared  to  begin  to  instruct 
until  he  sees  clearly  the  end  for  which  he  instructs. 
In  no  real  sense  can  he  be  an  educator  until  he  has 
distinctly  defined  for  himself  the  meaning  of  educa- 
tion. What  is  education  ?  Modern  science  answers, 
"Education  is  the  adaptation  of  a  person,  a  self- 
concious  being  to  environment,  and  the  development 
of  capacity  in  a  person  to  modify  or  control  that 
environment."* 


♦Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Ph.D,,  LL.D,,  Dean  of  the  School  of  Philosophy, 
Columbia  University, 


24  Cl^c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^ttntiap  ^cljcold 

You  will  notice  that  it  defines  education  as  a  life 
process,  to  be  completed  in  three  stages.  The  first 
step  is  personal  adaptation  to  environment.  The 
second  step  is  the  development  of  a  personal  capacity 
to  modify  environment,  and  the  third  step,  when 
possible,  is  to  so  develop  capacity  as  to  control  en- 
vironment. Shall  we  accept  this  definition?  Taking 
up  my  Bible,  I  turn  to  the  Book  of  Genesis.  I  read 
again  the  story  of  the  creation  of  the  earth,  and  the 
story  of  the  creation  of  man.  Then  I  read  the  first 
words,  which  the  Creator  spoke  to  the  first  human 
beings  as  they  stood  alone  on  the.  earth,  words  that 
defined  the  purpose  for  which  He  had  placed  them  on 
the  earth.  "And  God  said  unto  them,  be  fruitful,  and 
multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it:  and 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the 
fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  mov- 
eth  on  the  earth."  You  will  notice  that,  like  the 
scientific  definition  of  education,  God's  definition  of 
life's  purpose  falls  into  three  parts.  I  will  put  these 
two  definitions,  separated  by  so  many  thousands  of 
years,  into  parallel  columns  that  I  may  read  them 
part  against  part: 

God  Said  :  The  Philosofher  Says  : 

"Be   fruitful,    and    multiply,  "  Education  is  the  adaptation 

and  replenish  the  earth."  of  a  person  to  his  environment." 

(This  is  the  first  step.) 

i.f  uj      >.  ..u  .1.  "  Education  is  development  of 

Subdue     the  earth.  .^     .  .^         ,-r 

.T,,  .    .    ^,  J    ..      \  capacity  in  a  person  to  modify 

( 1  his  IS  the  second  step.)  ,.^       <       \„  ■' 

^  *^  '  ms  environment, 

"  Have  dominion  over. .  .every 

living  thing  that  moveth  on  the  ' '  Education   is   the    develop- 

earth."  ment  of  capacity  in  a  person  to 

(This  is  the  third  step.)  cpntrol  his  eqvironment," 


au^reefii  hv  Ecb,  Sllfcrt  91.  -JSutler,  ^.^«  25 

I  accept  the  definition  of  modern  science — not  be- 
cause it  is  the  latest  utterance  from  the  Chair  of  Phil- 
osophy in  the  greatest  university  of  the  first  city  of 
the  western  world,  but  because  that  definition  has  so 
deeply  planted  its  roots  in  the  history  of  mankind, 
and  so  exaltedly  lifted  its  head  towards  Heaven,  that 
it  has  unconciously  thought  the  thoughts  which  the 
Creator  uttered  in  the  dim  distance  of  that  unknown 
time  when  mankind  first  stood  upon  the  earth. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  the  centuries  that  have 
passed,  with  their  multitudinous  millions  of  souls 
which  have  struggled  to  change  the  face  of  the  earth 
and  the  destiny  of  man,  human  nature  and  human  en- 
vironment remain  essentially  the  same.  The  problem 
which  faced  the  first  man  on  the  earth  is  the  problem 
which  faces  the  child  that  has  just  been  born. 

Looking  upon  such  a  child  lying  in  the  arms  of  his 
nurse;  what  is  his  relation  to  his  surroundings?  He 
is  simply  their  victim,  the  helpless  victim  of  his  en- 
vironment. Love  may  nourish  him,  or  hate  may 
murder  him.  Sunshine  may  bring  health,  or  foul  air 
may  breed  disease.  Wisdom  may  strengthen  his  body 
and  mind,  or  ignorance  may  make  him  a  cripple  and 
an  idiot.  He  has  no  choice  in  the  matter;  he  is  simply 
the  helpless  victim  of  circumstances. 

He  may  grow  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  vice  and 
crime.  Almost  his  first  words  may  be  false  or  profane 
or  obscene,  and  his  first  deeds  the  taking  of  others' 
property;  but  his  oaths  are  not  wicked,  and  his  words 
are  not  vicious.    He  is  neither  a  thief  nor  a  liar;  he  is 


26  Clje  Cvppt  Conference  on  ^nnliap  ^cljoolc 

simply  the  neglected  slave  of  environment.  He  needs 
not  blame  nor  punishment,  but  education. 

In  another  street  another  child  is  born  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  morality  and  refinement;  he  is  the  opposite 
of  the  child  of  neglect.  He  is,  outwardly,  as  clean  as 
a  mountain  brook,  his  words  as  pure  and  sweet,  and 
his  form  as  handsome  as  an  angel's.  We  may  call 
him  a  little  saint;  but  he  is  only  the  child  of  his  sur- 
roundings. He  no  more  merits  our  praise  than  the 
other  child  did  our  condemnation.  He  also  is  only 
the  product  of  his  environment. 

Thirty  years  hence  the  conditions  of  these  two 
children  may  be  reversed.  The  development  of  in- 
ward capacity  can  make  the  victim  of  neglect  a  leader 
in  moral  and  religious  reform,  while  the  lack  of  such 
education  will  leave  the  petted  child  of  purity  the 
weak  victim  of  an  immoral  environment. 

The  end  of  education  is  capacity  for  mastership 
"in  that  state  of  life  unto  which  it  shall  please  God 
to  call  us.'' 

Outside  of  the  Church,  or  within  the  Church,  true 
education  never  means  the  shaping  of  a  soul  to  be 
controlled  by  others.  If  we  are  true  pastors,  the  end 
we  must  keep  before  us,  the  end  for  which  we  must 
pray  and  work  and  struggle,  is  to  produce  a  self- 
governing  soul,  a  soul  created  in  God's  image  to  be 
fitted  for  God-like  dominion  over  environment,  that 
it  may  come  "through  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ."  That  is  the  end  for 
which  pur  Jive3  ^re  to  be  spent,     3ut  we  ^hall  labor 


autrefiifi;  fap  Keb.  aifort  91.  -Btttler,  £).3:).  2^ 

as  those  who  beat  the  air  unless  we  understand  the 
nature  of  the  being  to  be  transformed  from  a  child  of 
circumstance  into  a  child  of  God. 

We  all  recognize  the  obligation  of  the  Church  to 
educate  her  children  in  righteousness;  but  I  fear  that 
sometimes  there  is  an  assumption  that  there  can  be  a 
moral  responsibility  resting  upon  a  parish,  which  does 
not  rest  upon  the  pastor.  But  that  is  impossible. 
The  heart  and  soul  of  the  parish  organization  is  the 
man  at  the  head  of  it.  The  parish  priest  makes  this 
claim,  when  he  asserts  his  ecclesiastical  rights;  he 
must  also  recognise  it,  when  he  faces  his  spiritual 
responsibilities.  Every  obligation  to  train  the  child 
which  rests  upon  the  parish,  rests  first  of  all  upon 
its  pastor. 

The  Sunday-school  does  not  relieve  the  rector  of 
his  responsibility.  Its  machinery  does  not  and  can- 
not take  the  place  of  personality.  The  Sunday-school 
is  simply  an  organization  to  extend  the  personal 
power  of  the  pastor;  its  superintendent  is  his  repre- 
sentative, its  teachers  are  his  assistants. 

But  some  overworked  rector  is  ready  to  exclaim, 
"I  have  so  many  other  duties  that  I  have  no  time  to 
attend  to  the  Sunday-school  or  its  children!"  What 
would  you  think  of  a  fireman  who  said,  "I  am  so 
busy  saving  the  building  that  I  have  no  time  to 
rescue  children?"  What  would  you  think  of  a  police- 
man who  said,  "I  am  too  busy  looking  after  men  of 
position  and  property  to  attend  to  children."  Did  He, 
who  came  to  save  all  the  world,  and  had  less  than  four 
years  in  which  to  do  it,  say,  "Send  the  mothers  away, 


28  Cf)e  Crppt  Confcrmce  on  ^uniiap  iS-cfjooIg 

I  have  no  time  to  attend  to  the  children?"  And  what 
do  you  imagine  He  thinks  of  us,  when  we  say,  "I 
have  no  time  to  attend  to  the  children"?  Your  first 
duty,  and  mine,  is  to  understand  and  aid  those  who 
most  need  our  aid,  that  is,  the  weakest  and  most  help- 
less members  of  our  flock.  If  we  do  not  know  how 
to  do  this  we  must  learn  how.  The  pastor  who  does 
not  know  the  door  that  opens  into  a  child's  heart,  and 
the  path  that  leads  into  a  child's  life,  is  shut  out  of 
the  most  blessed  opportunities  of  his  ministry. 

We  rightly  demand  of  every  workman  we  employ  a 
knowledge  of  the  material  in  which  he  works.  The 
carpenter  who  did  not  understand  the  difference  be- 
tween oak  and  pine  would  be  called  an  ignoramus, 
and  a  blacksmith  who  did  not  know  the  difference 
between  iron  and  lead  would  be  counted  an  idiot. 
And  yet  in  the  highest  sphere  of  all  earthly  labor, 
among  those  who  work  with  the  souls  of  men,  we  meet 
artisans  who  do  not  know  that  man's  mind  at  six 
years  and  at  twenty-six  is  as  different  as  lead  is  from 
iron,  and  that  the  mind  of  a  child  at  eight  and  at 
eighteen  differs  as  widely  as  does  pine  from  oak. 

Such  a  pastor  is  bound  to  blunder  at  every  step  of 
his  work  with  the  children.  He  cannot  instruct  them- 
without  organizing  them  as  a  school.  But,  from  the 
first  step  to  the  last,  organization  demands  a  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature  and  of  child-nature.  There  must 
be  no  misfits  in  the  class,  and  no  misfit  in  the  teacher. 

To  begin  with,  the  school  must  have  a  home,  and 
the  different  departments  and  classes  their  places  of 
meeting.     The  rector  should  know  that  surroundings 


autiwfifi!  6p  Ecb,  aiforU  ^.  Sutler,  D.£).  29 

exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  children  and  become 
important  factors  in  their  education.  To  make  a 
child  conscious  of  the  love  of  God  in  a  dark,  stuffy 
room,  is  much  harder  than  in  one  filled  with  bright- 
ness and  sunshine.  Yet  I  have  seen  the  infant  class 
crowded  into  a  stuffy  vestry-room  or  a  damp,  moldy 
cellar.  The  infant  class  is  the  most  sensitive  of  all 
to  its  surroundings,  and  should  be  the  last  one  in  the 
school  to  be  consigned  to  the  attic  or  the  coal  hole. 
It  should  have  the  cleanest  and  brightest  room  possi- 
ble, with  good  music  and  attractive  pictures. 

In  an  inland  town  a  mother  said  to  her  clergyman, 
"I  cannot  understand  why  my  boys  are  bewitched  to 
become  sailors.  They  have  never  seen  the  ocean,  and 
no  member  of  the  family  is  a  seafaring  man."  "It 
is  strange!"  said  the  clergyman,  and  then  his  eyes 
rested  upon  the  principal  picture  in  the  family  living 
room.  It  was  a  spirited  engraving  of  a  full-rigged 
ship,  ploughing  her  way  through  the  waves  like  a 
thing  of  life,  with  sails  set  and  colors  flying. 

Again,  there  are  few  duties  more  disliked  by  the 
average  pastor  than  that  of  enforcing  Sunday-school 
discipline.  I  do  not  mean  correction,  but  government; 
that  training  which  produces  and  sustains  order.  And 
without  order  teaching  is  an  impossibility.  In  all 
cases  of  discipline  the  rector  is,  or  should  be,  the 
court  of  final  appeal.  Can  a  rector  who  does  not 
understand  children,  govern  children? 

I  once  visited  a  large  Sunday-school  temporarily  in 
charge  of  an  assistant  minister.  In  less  than  fifteen 
minutes  he  openly  denounced  two  boys  for  some  slight 


30  9nf)e  Crppt  Conference  on  ^ttntiap  ^cljoolfi 

disorder,  and  then  dragged  them  into  position.  He 
announced  to  the  school  a  personal  matter  that  should 
have  been  whispered  to  the  scholars  concerned.  In 
violent  language  he  scolded  the  scholars  present  be- 
cause others  were  absent.  He  expelled  one  pupil  for 
a  small  offence,  and  threatened  to  expel  two  more. 
His  whole  course  was  not  disciplinary,  but  disorderly 
and  destructive. 

Yes,  it  was  an  extreme  case,  but  how  many  clergy- 
men who  have  faced  a  case  of  discipline  succeeded  in 
preserving  the  order  and  authority  of  the  school  with- 
out offending  the  whole  class  or  the  parents  of  the 
law-breakers?  A  pastor  who  does  not  understand 
children  has  no  right  to  judge  them. 

Said  an  earnest  teacher,  "What  am  I  to  do  with  a 
boy  who  is  never  still,  who  pays  no  attention  him- 
self, and  destroys  the  attention  of  others?"  The 
pastor  should  know  boy-nature  well  enough  to  answer, 
"That  boy's  activity  simply  proves  that  he  is  running 
over  with  the  raw  material  of  helpfulness."  All 
healthy  boys  want  to  do  something,  and  they  are  not 
far  wrong  when  they  believe  that  it  is  the  teacher's 
business  to  give  them  something  to  do.  The  average 
boy  is  ambitious,  he  does  not  like  to  be  lost  sight  of 
in  a  crowd,  not  even  when  the  crowd  is  studying  a 
Sunday-school  lesson.  He  delights  in  personal  work, 
in  doing  something  that  the  other  boy  is  not  doing, 
and  is  most  delighted  if  it  be  something  the  other  boy 
cannot  do. 

Meet  the  boy  on  his  own  ground.  Give  him  a 
special  point  to  hunt  up,  a  special  question  to  answer 


aUBrcBfi!  ip  Ect).  atlEorU  a.  -Sutler,  T>,t)*  31 

on  the  following  Sunday.  If  he  has  talents  in  any 
direction,  use  them.  Can  he  draw?  Give  him  a  map 
to  draw  for  the  class.  Hand  him  a  tracing  of  the 
lamp  figured  in  your  Bible  Dictionary,  and  ask  him  to 
enlarge  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  class  when  the  subject 
comes  up  next  Sunday.  Or,  if  the  subject  includes  a 
bottle,  a  helmet,  or  an  ancient  shoe,  do  likewise. 
Can  he  whittle?  The  shoe  would  look  better  cut  in 
wood,  and  the  Bible  plow  in  wood-carving  would  be  a 
striking  object  lesson.  So  would  a  Jewish  house  or 
a  ship.  Interest  in  one  part  of  the  lesson  spreads  to 
the  whole  lesson.  The  boy  certainly  can  do  some- 
thing to  help  on  the  lesson;  find  out  what  it  is  and 
set  him  to  work. 

Every  clergyman  knows  that  the  worship  of  the 
Sunday-school  should  be  devotional.  It  should  also 
be  educational.  It  should  train  the  children  to  under- 
stand and  love  the  services  of  the  Church.  Yet  some 
clergymen,  ignorant  of  the  first  principles  of  pedagogy, 
do  the  opposite  thing.  They  so  plan  their  Sunday- 
school  worship  as  to  educate  the  children  to  be  un- 
familiar with  the  Church's  prayer  and  praise,  and 
strangers  to  their  devotional  helpfulness.  Do  you 
wonder  that  such  children  drop  out  between  Sunday- 
school  and  Church?  He  was  a  wise  pastor  who  would 
not  allow  his  children  to  repeat  a  commandment, 
even  as  a  part  of  his  catechising,  without  the  organ 
giving  the  note  and  the  children  singing  "Lord 
have  mercy  upon  us  and  incline  our  hearts  to  keep 
this  law."  Children  love  to  do  what  they  can  do 
well. 


32  d)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unbap  ^cI)oal£i 

Again,  a  Sunday-school  exists  for  one  end,  and  only 
one  end:  namely,  to  teach.  Who  decides  what  it 
shall  teach?  The  pastor.  Who  decides  how  it  shall 
teach?  The  pastor.  Does  he  understand  what  he  is 
doing?  I  don't  know.  Often  he  decides  with  refer- 
ence to  the  truth  only,  regardless  of  the  child.  Often 
he  selects  a  lesson  that  pleases  himself;  not  what  the 
child  needs,  or  what  fits  its  limitations. 

The  Prayer-Book  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  parish 
priest  to  catechise  the  children.  It  also  provides  him 
with  a  catechism.  It  is  a  splendid  example  of  the  art 
of  questioning.  It  is  a  model  of  pedagogical  method. 
And  when  a  pastor  departs  from  its  method,  he  robs 
the  children  of  their  rights.  The  children  are  robbed 
only  too  frequently. 

To  begin  with,  the  young  clergyman  usually  omits 
the  first  question,  "  What  is  your  name?  "  What  is  the 
good  of  it?  What  is  the  good  of  making  the  child 
realize  at  the  start  that  you  are  catechising  him  about 
something  which  concerns  himself;  about  his  own 
name,  his  own  Baptism,  and  his  own  sponsors,  and 
that  he  is  the  member  of  Christ,  he  is  the  child  of 
God,  and  he  is  the  inheritor  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
of  which  you  are  speaking?  What  good  is  there  in 
teaching  a  child  the  fathomless  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  so  simply  that  he  actually  believes  and  says, 
"God  the  Father  made  me,  God  the  Son  redeemed 
me,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost  sanctifies  me"?  Evi- 
dently there  are  some  who  think  all  this  is  too  easy, 
too  likely  to  excite  personal  interest;  so  they  give  the 
helpless  child  a  seminary  lecture  in  dogmatics,  spoken 


%Vattfi6  bp  Eeb,  ^IforU  %,  -^Sutler,  t).^.  33 

in  the  metaphysical  nomenclature  of  some  theological 
encyclopaedia. 

If  our  Sunday-school  addresses  and  sermons  to 
children  followed  the  human,  personal,  and  home-like 
method  of  the  catechism  in  presenting  truth,  it  would 
greatly  multiply  their  helpfulness.  The  sermon  that 
finds  its  way  to  the  child's  mind  is  not  preached  and  is 
never  read.  It  is  talked  like  a  conversation.  Its 
truth  is  told  like  a  story.  The  clergyman  who  ''orated  " 
to  a  Sunday-school  was  wisely  criticised  by  the  little 
Miss  who  said,  "Mother,  I  don't  like  that  minister,  he 
don't  talk  like  gentlemen  that  come  to  our  house." 

A  second  truth  for  us  to  remember  is  that  the  pastor 
needs  to  understand  child-nature,  not  for  his  own  sake 
alone,  but  for  the  sake  of  his  Sunday-school  teachers. 

The  greatest  problem  in  Sunday-school  work  is  that 
of  procuring  teachers  that  can  teach.  It  is  the  prob- 
lem of  the  city  parish,  the  country  parish,  and  the 
wayside  mission.  What  makes  the  problem?  Pri- 
marily it  is  the  selfishness  and  indifference  of  the 
communicants  of  the  Church.  Practically  it  is  ignor- 
ance of  the  Bible,  and  ignorance  of  the  art  of  teaching. 
But  the  latter  stumbling  blocks  can  always  be  removed 
if  there  be  only  the  wish  and  the  will  to  become  a 
teacher. 

In  view  of  the  ingratitude  with  which  most  Sunday- 
school  teachers  are  treated,  one  wonders  sometimes 
that  our  parishes  ever  find  any  who  are  willing  to 
teach.  Yet  devout  persons  are  found  because  they 
really  love  the  Lord  and  His  little  ones.  One  cannot 
help  wishing  that  Biblical  knowledge  always  accom- 


34  ^ht  Crppt  Sonterrnce  on  SunJiap  ^ct)ool6 

panied  devout  faithfulness,  and  that  the  art  of  teaching 
was  inseparable  from  loving  self-sacrifice;  but  such 
is  not  the  case.  The  spiritually  competent  teacher  is 
often  Biblically  incompetent;  while  the  teacher  who 
knows  her  Bible,  often  does  not  know  how  to  impart 
its  truth. 

What  the  faithful  teacher  does  not  know,  the  pastor 
must  supply.  But  the  grace  of  ordination  does  not 
endow  him  with  the  power  to  give  what  he  does  not 
possess.  He  must  have  a  knowledge  of  child-nature 
before  he  can  impart  it  to  others. 

"Tell  me,"  said  a  teacher,  "  ho-w  I  am  to  teach  a 
boy  who  attends  regularly,  but  takes  no  interest  in 
anything.  He  does  not  even  believe  the  Bible,  and 
his  father  denies  its  truthfulness  before  his  children." 
The  clergyman  appealed  to  asked  many  questions  of 
the  teacher  before  she  could  recall  a  single  act  that 
indicated  interest  in  anything,  but  at  last  she  said,  "Oh 
yes;  he  did  come  to  my  rescue  twice  when  the  other 
boys  were  unusually  disorderly  and  trying. "  "That, 
said  the  pastor,  "is  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  the  spirit 
that  created  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  Crusades.  There- 
fore appeal  to  your  boy's  spirit  of  knighthood,  his 
desire  to  be  the  protector  of  the  weak,  and  his  am- 
bition for  the  heroic.  Present  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to 
him,  as  the  man  who  dared  to  stand  alone  before  the 
tempter  in  the  desert,  to  stand  alone  against  the  whole 
Jewish  nation,  and  alone  and  undrugged  to  face  the 
horrors  of  a  Roman  crucifixion." 

The  teacher's  meeting  is  the  place  where  the  rector 
usually  attempts   to   instruct   his   teachers.      In  many 


anurcfiifi;  bp  Ke\).  aiforti  31.  •^SutUr,  T),'D.  35 

cases  such  meetings  are  not  a  success,  and  some 
clergymen  make  no  attempt  to  hold  them.  Yet  it  is 
impossible  to  have  a  real  school  without  a  teacher's 
meeting;  for  a  school  means  unity  of  discipline  and 
unity  of  instruction.  When  the  teacher's  meeting  fails 
there  is  always  a  reason  for  it.  There  are  many 
clergymen  (I  regret  to  say  that  I  was  once  one  of  them), 
who  believe  that  they  are  learned  enough  to  conduct 
a  teacher's  meeting  without  any  special  preparation. 
It  is  a  mistake,  a  grave  mistake.  Meetings  under 
such  leaders  are  not  conducted,  they  simply  drift;  and 
like  everything  else  that  drifts,  they,  sooner  or  later, 
are  wrecked  beyond  recovery. 

There  can  be  no  success  in  a  teacher's  meeting  with- 
out working  for  it.  The  leader  must  prepare  himself, 
and  the  preparation  must  not  be  confined  to  under- 
standing the  lesson.  It  must  include  understanding 
how  to  teach  the  lesson  so  that  it  shall  fit  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  scholars  of  that  particular  parish  or 
mission. 

The  teacher  of  teachers  must  know,  and  make  them 
know,  that  it  is  utterly  wrong  to  look  upon  a  room  full, 
or  a  class  full,  of  children,  as  they  would  upon  a  lumber 
pile,  all  parts  of  the  same  material,  all  to  be  cut  to  the 
same  size,  shaped  to  the  same  form,  planed  and  sand- 
papered to  the  same  finish ;  and  that  if  any  child  dares 
to  assert  his  individuality,  he  is  to  be  blamed  and 
punished.  This  was  not  the  Master's  method.  He 
had  come  to  save  all  men,  yet  He  emphasized  the 
value  of  each  individual,  and  found  time  to  instruct 
every  soul   that   game  Xq   Him,     The  pastqr  should 


36  C()e  Crppt  Confererue  on  S>ttnliap  S»cl^oolfi 

know  that  if  a  child  is  bad,  his  past  environment  has 
made  him  so.  The  wise  physician  makes  a  study  of 
each  case,  and  the  wise  teacher  will  do  likewise. 
When  the  teacher  knows  how  the  child  came  to  be 
what  he  is,  he  also  knows  how  to  plan  to  make 
him  better  than  he  is.  It  is  the  quack  doctor  and 
the  quack  teacher  that  treat  all  cases  alike,  and 
prescribe  a  remedy  before  they  understand  the 
disease. 

The  pastor  should  know  that  the  lumber-pile  point 
of  view  tempts  teachers  to  think,  if  not  to  say  to  the 
child,  "I  know  what  you  need,  and  you  must  learn  it. 
It  makes  no  difference  in  what  you  are  interested,  you 
must  pay  attention  and  answer  my  questions."  This 
is  brute  force.  It  defies  educational  experience  and 
divine  example.  God  allows  even  the  worm  to  de- 
velop according  to  his  own  nature.  Cannot  we  permit 
the  mind  of  a  child,  made  sacred  by  God's  touch,  to 
do  the  same? 

The  teacher's  teacher  should  know  that  every  grade 
in  the  Sunday-school  represents  not  only  a  different 
stage  of  acquired  knowledge,  but  also  a  different  grade 
of  mental  development;  and  that  the  teachers  of  each 
grade  need  different  topics  for  their  lessons,  and 
different  methods  with  their  children.  He  should  help 
his  teachers  of  the  infant  and  primary  grades  to  under- 
stand that  their  children  belong  to  the  age  of  perpetual 
motion,  of  multitudinous  instincts,  of  insatiable  curi- 
osity, and  of  tireless  imitation ;  and  that  the  teachers 
must  adapt  themselves  to  the  condition  of  their 
children. 


StUUrecfi  bp  Kcto.  aifarU  31.  -JStttlcr,  2).2).  37 

He  should  make  the  teachers  of  children  from  seven 
to  twelve  years  of  age  realize  that  theirs  is  the  golden 
age  for  the  child  and  for  the  teacher.  It  is  the  age  of 
habits  that  can  be  made  the  servants  of  righteousness; 
of  memory  willing  to  lay  by  a  rich  store  of  God's  truth 
against  the  day  of  need;  of  imagination  that  can  be 
led  into  paths  of  purity  and  sweetness;  of  emotions  to 
be  guided  into  holiness;  of  conscience  to  be  made 
tender  and  noble  and  true;  of  moral  conditions  wait- 
ing to  be  stamped  with  the  image  of  Christ  Jesus;  and 
of  religious  yearnings,  unconfessed,  yet  real,  and 
craving  both  sympathy  and  direction. 

And  above  all  should  the  pastor  know  how  to  sym- 
pathize with  and  instruct  and  help  those  teachers  who 
are  trying  to  guide  wayward  youth  between  the  ages 
of  12  and  16,  for  it  is  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing 
of  all  grades.  It  is  the  age  when  even  the  quiet 
scholar  may  become  "the  bad  boy,"  and  the  demure 
girl  "the  tom-boy."  It  is  a.i  age  when  self-conscious- 
ness becomes  bashfulness,  reticence,  or  stubbornness; 
and  a  sense  of  humor  breaks  out  in  practical  jokes 
and  seeming  irreverence.  It  is  the  age  of  bullying, 
teasing,  and  showing  off;  it  is  also  the  age  of  ambition 
and  courage  and  other  elements  which  go  to  make  up 
a  noble  character.  It  is  the  age  of  hero  worship,  and 
also  of  the  dime  novel;  of  secret  societies,  and  neigh- 
borhood gangs  for  fighting  and  stealing;  and  also  the 
age  for  Knights  of  Temperance,  Boys'  Brigades  and 
Junior  Brotherhoods  of  St.  Andrew.  It  is  the  age 
when  the  greatest  harm  is  done  by  a  teacher's  bad  ex- 
ample or  angry  discipline,     It  is  the  time  when  the 


38  Cbt  Crppt  Conffrcnre  on  S  ttnUnp  ;§'cl)ooIg 

ideal  teacher  for  boys  is  an  earnest  Christian  athlete, 
and  for  girls  a  sympathetic  middle-aged  mother;  for 
it  is  an  age  when  example  is  more  weighty  than  in- 
struction; when  Christian  character  counts  for  more 
than  Scripture  truth,  and  when  love  and  sympathy  are 
more  powerful  than  text-books  and  pedagogy. 

Such  is  the  sort  of  instruction  which  the  teacher 
needs-  to  receive,  and  which  the  rector  needs  to  pre- 
pare himself  to  impart.  It  is  the  instruction  which 
your  Sunday  School  Commission  has  already  made  it 
much  easier  to  obtain  than  it  was  three  years  ago. 
Teachers'  meetings  and  normal  classes  for  Sunday- 
school  teachers  are  a  necessity  if  the  Sunday-school 
is  to  be  an  educational  force  in  the  Church.  I 
thoroughly  believe  if  the  plans  of  your  Commission 
are  carried  out  by  the  parishes,  they  will  place  the 
educational  work  of  the  Sunday-schools  of  New  York 
in  the  front  rank  of  religious  instruction  in  the  United 
States. 

In  conclusion  I  would  call  your  attention  to  the  im- 
portance of  a  knowledge  of  child-nature  in  Confirma- 
tion Instruction,  for  I  fear  few  young  clergymen 
realize  the  supreme  importance  and  the  blessed  oppor- 
tunity of  the  Confirmation  period. 

In  1896-8,  Professor  Bell,  of  the  northern  Indiana 
Normal  School,  gave  to  his  students  this  question: 
"  Recall  all  your  past  teachers,  and  single  out  the  one 
that  did  you  the  most  good.  How  old  were  you  when 
this  greatest  good  came?"*  Over  one  thousand 
answers  were  received  from  men  and  women  represent- 
ing every  sphere  of  life,  and  over  eight  hundred  and 

*  Pedagogical  Seminary,  190Q, 


auniregfi  bp  Kcb.  aiforU  a.  -iSutler,  ^.D.  39 


fifty  gave  the  exact  years.  More  than  three-fourths  of 
them  said  that  the  good  came  to  them  between  twelve 
and  eighteen  years  of  age.  This,  we  must  believe,  is 
the  period  of  greatest  conscious  susceptibility  to 
educational  influences. 

Professor  Bell's  question  related  to  secular  schools 
and  secular  students.  But  the  striking  thing  about 
their  answers  is  this:  Almost  all  of  them  testify  that 
the  greatest  good  which  they  received  was  not  mental 
good  but  moral  good ;  the  example  of  a  noble  character ; 
the  inspiration  of  a  sincere  Christian  life.  In  other 
words,  the  majority  of  the  thousand  witnesses  testify 
that  the  greatest  good  received  during  their  public 
school  life  was  the  very  thing  which  our  civil  and 
political  rulers  have  done  their  best  to  keep  out  of  the 
schools,  and  which  they  still  declare  must  not  have  a 
place  in  them,  namely,  the  teaching  of  Christian  ethics, 
the  Christian  principles  of  life  and  conduct. 

Now  note  the  bearing  of  this  unusually  valuable 
study  of  child-nature  upon  Confirmation.  We  have 
long  known  that  a  period  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  the  life  of  the  child  came  before  his  ninth  year. 
We  have  too  often  spoken  of  this  time  as  though  it 
were  the  only  period  of  supreme  importance.  It  is 
plain  that  there  is  a  second  period  like  unto  the  first. 
The  tree  has  but  one  age  in  which  it  is  soft  and 
pliable,  the  child  has  two. 

The  period  of  early  childhood  is  the  age  of  physical 
and  mental  sensitiveness,  the  child's  formative  period 
of  life.  The  period  of  adolescence  is  the  age  of  moral 
and  spiritual  susceptibility.      It  is  the  age  of  budding 


40  Clje  Crpjpt  Conference  on  ^un5ap  ^cI)ool6 

vice  and  budding  virtue,  the  moral  and  spiritual  crisis 
of  the  child's  whole  life. 

And  yet,  and  yet  we  are  compelled  to  say  it  is  the 
age  of  greatest  parochial  neglect,  the  age  when  thou- 
sands and  tens  of  thousands  of  young  people  are 
expected  to  leave  our  Sunday-schools  and  allowed 
to  go — to  irreligion  or  worse ;  and  this  when  the  young 
hearts  are  hungry  for  real  love,  for  sympathetic  con- 
fidence and  wise  direction. 

The  point  to  be  realized  is  that  the  age  of  adoles- 
cence is  the  one  above  all  others  when  the  restless 
boy  and  the  nervous  girl  should  not  be  let  alone  to 
carry  out  their  own  wayward  fancies  and  blind 
impulses.  In  reality,  the  new  and  mysterious  unrest 
which  makes  them  dissatisfied  with  present  conditions 
is  not  simply  physical  and  mental,  it  touches  the  very 
soul.  And  at  no  other  period  in  life  is  there  such  a 
spiritual  upheaval  and  moral  awakening.  In  earlier 
years  they  heard  about  moral  obligations,  now  they 
feel  them. 

It  is  a  mark  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Church  of  God, 
under  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Covenants,  that  long 
before  Psychology  or  Child-study  were  born,  the 
period  of  adolescence  was  selected  as  the  one  when 
the  child  of  the  covenant  should  enter  into  the  full 
privileges  of  the  old  sacrificial  or  the  new  sacramental 
life. 

The  intelligent  pastor  cannot  close  his  eyes  to  the 
supreme  importance  of  an  age  which  has  thus  been 
plainly  marked  by  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  by  the 
laws  of  the  Church  of  God,  and  by  the  experience  of 


mankind.  The  hour  before  manhood  is  the  moral 
crisis-hour  of  the  child's  life,  while  to  the  pastor  it  is 
the  hour  of  his  greatest  opportunity  and  most  blessed 
privilege. 

Looking  back  on  my  twenty-three  years'  ministry, 
I  see  that  the  larger  part  of  my  time  was  given  to 
pulpit  preparation,  but  I  believe  that  the  most  endur- 
ing work  I  have  been  privileged  to  do  for  God  was 
not  in  the  pulpit,  but  in  the  Confirmation  Class. 

Mine,  however,  has  been  an  obscure  and  limited 
experience.  Let  me  quote  the  experience  of  a  great 
bishop  of  France,  Dupanloup.  He  had  received  the 
greatest  ecclesiastical  and  literary  honors  which  his 
nation  had  to  give.  He  was  chosen  a  bishop,  a  dele- 
gate to  the  French  Academy,  and  a  representative  in 
the  National  Assembly.  He  had  felt  the  intoxicating 
power  of  eloquence,  the  gift  of  swaying  thousands 
with  his  own  thoughts  and  emotions.  Yet  he  declares 
that  in  all  his  experience  there  had  nothing  come  into 
his  life  equal  in  interest  and  blessedness  to  the 
preparation  of  candidates  for  their  first  Communion. 
His  own  words  are,  "I  have  known  nothing  in  the 
work  of  the  ministry  to  compare  with  those  classes, 
and  now  that  my  white  hairs  and  the  weight  of  my 
years  upon  my  head  warn  me  of  an  end  not  far 
distant,  my  greatest  consolation  and  hope  before  God 
is  the  memory  of  the  first  Communions  for  which  I 
have  prepared  my  catechumens." 

In  the  judgment  of  the  good  bishop  the  work  repaid 
itself  an  hundredfold  to  the  clergy  themselves.  To 
him   his   classes  were   a  revelation   of  the  beauty  of 


42  Srijc  Crppt  Coitfcicncc  on  ^anUnp  ^djoolc 

souls  opening  through  contact  with  God.  He  saw 
dimly  growing  in  them  the  divine  beauty  of  that 
Image  in  which  they  were  created,  and  the  hallowing 
power  of  that  Love  which  found  its  most  perfect 
expression  on  the  Cross. 


Cl^e  J^t^ivahilitv  of  a  ^v^ttmatic  anD 

Comprei^en^fte  ^DrDer  of  ^tuD^ 

for  our  ^unDa^  ^cl^ooljs 


Rev.  Lawrence  T.  Cole,  B.D.,  Ph.D. 

Warden   of   St.    Stephen's   College,  Annandale,   New  York 

HOW  SHALL  SUCH  AN   ORDER   OF  STUDY  BE    PLANNED  TO 

INSTRUCT  THE  CHILD  IN   THE  THINGS  THE 

CHURCH  WOULD  TEACH? 


fffW :iife/y^5i^if  H E  task  of  the  planner  of  a  curriculum, 

II  fE3V-o— »^-<0=^   M 

il-'v^l'*^d£^?A^N    ^s  the  present  writer  can  testify  from 

\L  ^jA  f7^  fi}^  til  • 

f,^  ^wli    experience,   is  no  easy  one,   nor  is  his 

i|h^:^^2)^ri    problem    simple    in    its   statement    nor 


Bii=T=iTi=^a]  obvious  in  its  solution.  Even  in  the  day 
school  or  college,  where  a  certain  preliminary  training 
can  be  counted  upon,  where  a  continuous  residence  of 
some  length  can  be  expected,  where,  moreover,  trained 
teachers  and  adequate  machinery  for  the  work  in  hand 
are  assured,  the  perfectly  logical  abstract  theory  is  so 

43 


44  ^^t  Cvppt  Conference  on  ^untiap  '^cl)ooIs 

often  disturbed,  and  even  disorganized,  by  unexpected 
developments  of  that  infinitely  variable  thing  which 
we  call  personality,  so  unaccountable  in  its  capacities, 
tastes,  temperament  and  tendencies,  that  he  who  has 
had  the  widest  experience  in  the  practice  of  education 
is  the  last  man  to  make  dogmatic  statements  about 
the  absolute  value  of  details  of  method  or  order  or 
matter  in  the  ordinary  curriculum.  If  this  is  so  in 
the  case  of  subjects,  to  the  proper  teaching  of  which 
so  much  thought  and  attention  have  been  given,  it  is 
doubly  and  trebly  true  when  we  attempt  to  shape  a 
course  of  study  for  the  Sunday-school.  Besides  the 
lack  of  competent  trained  teachers,  the  kaleidoscopic 
shifting  and  changing  of  the  persons  who  compose  the 
school,  and  the  difficulty  of  holding  either  teacher  or 
pupil  to  any  intelligent  system  long  enough  to  secure 
results  of  any  consequence,  we  have  to  face  the  prac- 
tical lack  of  agreement  as  to  the  exact  function  of  the 
Sunday-school,  sturdy  differences  of  opinion  concern- 
ing the  exact  subjects  which  ought  to  find  a  place  in 
any  rightly  constructed  course  for  a  Church-school, 
and  bewildering  haziness  of  mind  about  the  logical 
divisions  of  such  portion  of  the  subject-matter  as  men 
may  be  able  to  agree  upon,  and  the  order  in  which  it 
should  be  exhibited  to  the  child's  mind.  That  we 
need  to  consider  this  matter  these  very  facts  indicate 
most  clearly.  The  vague,  purposeless  way  in  which 
various  subjects  are  taken  up  and  dropped  again  at 
the  whim  of  teacher  or  class,  the  one-sided  and  sec- 
tarian presentation  of  the  facts  of  the  Christian  Faith 
and   the   principles  of   the   Christian  life,    the  over- 


autircsis  fap  Kci).  latorcncc  ^=  Cole,  -JS.D.,  |)I).3:).  4S 

emphasis  or  almost  entire  obscuration  of  the  "reason- 
able service"  of  the  Church  in  her  appointed  worship, 
all  point  to  the  necessity  of  some  norm  which  shall 
keep  us  all  alive  to  the  "proportion  of  the  Faith," 
the  many-sidedness  of  the  Christian  life,  and  the  sur- 
passing importance,  and  yet  definite  limitations,  of 
the  Church's  mind  and  heart  as  expressed  in  her 
devotional  standards. 

But  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  I,  for  one, 
do  not  feel  at  all  certain  in  my  own  mind  about  the 
details  of  such  a  curriculum  or  course  of  study  as 
would  rectify  these  deficiencies,  nor  am  I  at  all  sure 
that  the  Church  is  ready  to  undertake  the  solution  of 
the  problem  in  detail.  However,  there  are  a  few 
principles  that  must  guide  those  who  do  try  to  draft 
such  a  curriculum,  and  it  is,  very  fortunately  for  me, 
to  these  that  we  are  to  turn  our  attention  in  this 
paper. 

These  principles  will,  I  think,  be  found  in  the 
answers  to  three  or  four  questions: 

I.  What  is  the  exact  subject-matter  to  be  properly 
taught  in  the  Sunday-school? 

II.  Upon  what  principles  shall  we  proceed  in  a 
classification  of  this  subject-matter,  in  order  that  it 
may  be  shaped  into  a  curriculum? 

III.  Upon  what  principles  shall  the  order  of  pro- 
cedure in  the  curriculum  be  determined, 

1.  Psychologically,  with  regard  to  the  needs  of 

the  pupil's  mind; 

2.  Logically,  with  regard  to  the  development  of 

the  subject-matter? 


4(5  Cbc  Crppt  Conference  on  ;i»untiap  ^c/joolei 

I.  That  we  have  no  practical  agreement  as  to  what 
is  the  proper  subject-matter  for  the  instruction  of  the 
Sunday-school,  a  casual  glance  at  the  various  classes 
in  different  schools  will  determine.  There  seems  to 
be  no  subject  so  foreign  to  religion  that  the  ingenious 
teacher  can  not  bring  it  in  in  some  way  so  that  the 
illustration  shall  eclipse  the  thing  illustrated.  There 
is  no  function  of  the  child's  nature  of  so  little  import 
in  regard  to  his  spiritual  development  but  that  some 
way  can  be  devised  to  make  the  whole  routine  of  the 
Sunday-school  an  exercise  in  the  use  of  this  function. 
You  will  notice  that  I  am  not  thinking  now  of  the 
lamentable  lack  of  agreement  among  us  as  to  particu- 
lar doctrines  and  their  place  in  a  curriculum.  It  is 
bad  enough,  on  the  theological  side,  that  the  members 
of  the  Church  cannot  agree  what  specific  doctrines 
should  be  taught  her  children,  but  it  is  quite  as  bad 
from  the  pedagogical  side  that  the  religious  education 
of  the  Church  is  being  prosecuted  without  any  definite, 
intelligent  principle  by  which  to  determine  what  shall 
be  included  in  the  curriculum  and  what  rejected. 
Tliis  principle,  by  which  the  content  of  the  Church's 
school  curriculum  must  be  determined,  is  to  be  found, 
in  my  opinion,  in  the  purpose  or  end  for  the  sake  of 
which  the  Church  attempts  to  instruct  her  children. 
This  purpose,  in  accordance  with  the  general  purpose 
of  the  C'lristian  Church,  is  practical  rather  than 
intellectual  or  theoretical.  The  aim  of  the  Church  in 
all  of  her  work  is  to  produce  life^  rather  than  mere 
thought.  She  aims  at  intellectual  culture  and  specu- 
lative results  only  as  means   to    her  chief    end — the 


auurcixs  bp  iSci).  latorcnce  C  Cole,  -ia.C).,  |)I).D.  47 

initiation  and  perpetuation  of  a  life  which  is  "in  the 
world  and  yet  not  of  the  world."  She  strives,  it  is 
true,  to  enlarge  the  intellectual  horizon  of  her  children, 
but  only  in  order  that  they  may  perceive  more  clearly 
the  need  for,  and  the  incomparable  perfection  of,  this 
Christian  life.  She  strengthens  and  sharpens  their 
vision,  but  only  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to 
pierce  beyond  the  mere  "practice  sphere"  of  the 
things  of  this  world  and  see  clearly  and  appreciatively 
the  great  Ideal  which  it  is  hers  to  set  always  before 
her  children. 

Now,  in  much  of  the  teaching  of  our  Sunday- 
schools,  we  have  been  hampered  by  the  incubus  which 
has  come  down  to  us,  not  from  primitive,  but  from 
Reformation  times.  The  interest  of  most  of  the 
Continental  reformers,  at  any  rate,  was  chiefly  intel- 
lectual and  speculative.  To  read  their  sermons,  their 
theological  works,  their  catechisms,  is  to  recognize 
how  completely  their  interest  was  bound  up  in  the 
discussion  of  theoretical,  rather  than  practical  ques- 
tions. The  solution  of  the  speculative  problem  was 
for  them  the  end  of  the  matter.  In  sharp  contrast  to 
this  intellectual  interest  is  the  stress  which  the  primi- 
tive Church  placed  upon  the  development  of  the 
spiritual  life.  The  doctrine  was  important  only  as  a 
means — a  necessary  means — to  the  life.  Never  did 
they  regard  it  as  an  end  in  itself.  It  is  in  the  realiza- 
tion of  this  primitive  way  of  regarding  the  teaching 
function  of  the  Church,  and  in  emancipation  from  the 
cold  and  impotent  academic  abstractions  of  much  of 
the  post-Reformation  religion  that  I  find  for  my  own 


4^  Cl)e  Crppt  Confcrtnce  an  ^unljap  g»cI)ooIg 

'  '  — 

thought  the  key  to  a  determination  of  the  proper 
boundaries  of  religious  instruction  which  the  Church 
ought  to  give  her  children.  It  should  be  such  instruc- 
tion as  will  tend  in  a  real  and  vital  manner  to  a 
realization  of  the  great  Christian  ideal  in  life.  Any 
speculation  or  argument  for  the  sake  merely  of  the 
intellectual  solution  is  too  insignificant  to  be  given  a 
place  in  the  curriculum  of  the  Sunday-school.  These 
things  have  a  most  valid  place  in  the  day  schools,  but 
the  Church  needs  every  moment  of  the  paltry  hour 
which  is  hers  for  the  instruction  of  her  children  in 
order  that  she  may  teach  them  those. practical  things 
which  are  so  peculiarly  her  own. 

If  a  curriculum  could  be  devised  which  would 
eliminate  a  great  part  of  that  mere  learning  for  the 
sake  of  learning,  without  any  result  in  life  in  view, 
with  which  so  many  of  our  Sunday-schools  are  bur- 
dened, it  would  in  this  alone  justify  its  ofifice.  The 
Sunday-school  is  to  teach  those  things  which  minister 
in  a  reasonably  direct  way  to  the  advancement  of  the 
spiritual  life,  and  its  whole  aim  is  practical,  not 
speculative.  It  has  no  time  for  anything  outside  of 
this,  and  its  future  curriculum  must  apply  this  test  to 
all  proposed  subjects  for  study. 

II.  As  the  subject  matter  for  the  Sunday-school  is 
whatever  contributes  to  the  Christian  life,  our  classifi- 
cation of  this  material  will  have  to  proceed  on  the 
basis  of  an  analysis  of  the  various  phenomena  of  the 
spiritual  life,  their  sources,  development,  laws,  etc. 
I  confess  that  I  am  not  sure  just  how  such  an  analysis 
ought  to  proceed.     There  are  so  many  different  bases 


^Blircfifii  iip  Ecto.  latnrcnte  ST.  Cole,  ^.2D.,  JJI).^.  49 

of  classification  which  appear,  that  one  is  at  a  loss  from 
what  point  of  departure  to  set  out.  Perhaps  it  will  in 
the  end  be  found  quite  as  well  to  make  the  classifica- 
tions on  the  basis  of  some  one  of  the  old  familiar 
classical  divisions,  e.  g.,  (i)  the  knowledge  of  God, 
(2)  the  service  of  God,  (3)  the  worship  of  God. 

III.  The  real  difficulty,  however,  comes  when  we 
try  to  arrange  this  extended  and  exceedingly  difficult 
subject-matter  into  the  order  in  which  it  should  be 
presented  to  the  child's  mind.  In  this  task  we  are 
aided  but  little  by  the  formularies  of  the  Church.  It 
is  true  that  they  can  be,  and  are,  dissected  into 
sections  for  greater  convenience  in  handling,  but  the 
fact  has  always  struck  me  very  forcibly  that  hardly 
any  two  divisions  agree  in  principle  or  detail,  and  yet 
one  is  about  as  consistent  with  the  material  as  the 
other.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the  Church 
Catechism  was  never  intended  to  be  a  pedagogical 
guide  to  the  teaching  of  religion.  It  is  probably  the 
most  admirable  plain  statement  of  the  fundamental 
truths  of  the  spiritual  life  in  existence,  but  it  is  quite 
fragmentary  and  disconnected  in  its  structure,  and 
occasional  in  its  origin  (the  section  on  the  Sacraments, 
for  example,  being  an  entire  afterthought,  and  thus 
not  at  all  designed  to.  afford  a  basis  for  an  order  of 
procedure  in  teaching  the  things  which  the  Church 
v/ould  teach).  Nor  is  any  aid  in  this  matter  to  be 
found  in  the  other  formularies  of  the  Church,  Isolated 
statements  of  her  doctrine,  so  plainly  expressed  that 
he  who  runs  may  read,  there  are  in  abundance,  but  no 
sign  of   the  order  in   which  these  things  are  to  be 


50  CI)t  Crppt  Conference  on  ^untiap  ^clioola 

taught.  Preliminary  to  the  drafting  of  a  detailed 
curriculum  there  must  be  agreement  as  to  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  the  order  of  subjects  shall  be  deter- 
mined. This  may,  as  I  see  it,  be  rationally  decided 
in  two  ways: 

I.  In  the  first  place  it  goes  almost  without  saying, 
in  the  light  of  modern  education,  that  the  subjects 
included  in  the  program  of  religious  education 
should  be  developed  for  the  child  in  a  manner  and 
after  an  order  that  is  adapted  to  the  various  stages 
of  the  child's  mmd  and  interests.  We  recognize 
this  principle  readily  enough  in  other  departments 
of  education.  The  earliest  teaching  of  our  schools 
proceeds  on  the  basis  of  certain  possibilities  in  the 
child  which  the  teacher  attempts  to  bring  out  and 
develop  in  the  first  stages,  not  by  direct  teaching, 
or  telling  the  child  about  certain  facts,  but  by  the  con- 
crete process  of  having  them  do  certain  things,  the 
explanation  of  which  and  the  significance  of  which  the 
child  is  only  to  know  at  a  considerably  later  period  in 
its  development.  He  understands  enough  now  for 
practical  purposes — for  doing  the  thing — but  he  only 
reaches  the  full  knowledge  of  the  meaning  of  his  act 
when  experience  has  given  him  the  necessary  data 
upon  which  to  rest  a  statement  of  the  abstract  signifi- 
cance of  it. 

Exactly  the  same  process  must  be  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  are  to  draft  the  curriculum  for  our  Sunday- 
schools.  They  must  have  in  mind  constantly  that  the 
primary  interests  of  the  child's  mind  are  practical,  not 
speculative  or  intellectual,  that  the  processes  of  the 


SlUUrcfiifi  bp  Eeb.  latorcnce  dr.  Cole,  ^.^.,  |)!).^.  51 

child's  mind  are  carried  on  in  tlie  realm  of  concrete 
things,  not  abstract  ideas  or  definitions.  The  child  is 
busied  first  of  all  in  doing  things,  not  thinking  things, 
and  he  has  but  little  interest  in  any  statements  which 
do  not  imply  an  immediate  expression  of  the  thought 
in  action.  Nor  is  this  attitude  of  mind  restricted  to 
the  earliest  period.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  it  will 
be  found  in  the  greater  number  of  cases  to  persist 
until  a  comparatively  late  stage  in  the  child's  develop- 
ment. 

This  fact  will  necessitate  a  very  great  change  in  the 
method  of  procedure  from  that  now  in  use  for  the 
greater  part.  I  remember  very  well  that  the  catechism 
which  formed  my  own  introduction  to  the  work  of  the 
Sunday-school  began  with  several  stupendous  ques- 
tions and  answers,  before  which  philosophers  and  theol- 
ogians might  well  bow  in  awe  and  reverence,  but  which 
called  forth  from  us  unlucky  wights  not  so  much  as  an 
answering  glimmer  of  intelligence  or  interest.  Let  me 
place  before  you  the  questions  with  which  a  certain 
catechism  published  in  England  starts  beginners  in  the 
path  of  religious  instruction.  The  first  is  the  usual 
one:   "Who  made  you?"  "God  made  me." 

"Why  did  God  make  you?"  "God  made  me  to 
know,  love,  and  serve  Him  on  earth  and  to  be  happy 
with  Him  forever  in  Heaven." 

"How  are  you  to  know,  love,  and  serve  God?"  "I 
am  to  know,  love,  and  serve  God  by  the  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity  He  gives  me." 

"When  did  God  give  you  the  supernatural  gifts  of 
Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity?"  "God  gave  me  the  super- 


52  CIjc  Crppt  Conference  on  :§>untiap^cI)oolB 

natural  gifts  of  Faith,  Hope,  and  Charity  in  my 
Baptism." 

Imagine  putting  such  questions  as  these  to  little 
children.  They  touch  the  most  difficult  and  ultimate 
problems  of  thought  and  the  deepest  and  most  myste- 
rious articles  of  the  Faith.  It  is  the  very  few  in  every 
age,  even  among  theologians,  who  have  had  the  hardi- 
hood to  wrestle  with  such  questions  as  these;  and  yet 
we  thrust  them,  in  all  their  formidable  abstraction  upon 
the  minds  of  little  children,  who  carry  away  from 
religious  instruction,  as  their  chief  impression,  the  hor- 
rid memory  of  enforced  and  unintelligent  learning  by 
rote  of  stupendous  and  overwhelming  sentences  in  an 
unknown  tongue.  What  wonder  is  it  that  they  fall 
easy  victims  to  the  specious  half-truths  of  Agnosticism? 

The  rational  curriculum  which  we  are  discussing 
must  proceed  on  very  different  lines  from  these.  It 
can,  I  feel  confident  from  my  own  experience  in  such 
work,  take  for  granted  a  certain  adaptability  in  the 
child  for  the  fundamental  facts  of  religion.  Most 
children  are  by  nature  and  almost  spontaneously  relig- 
ious. An  attitude  of  reverence,  of  prayer,  of  penitence 
for  wrong-doing  is  almost  automatically  assumed  on 
the  proper  occasions  by  the  unspoiled  child.  It  is  only 
as  contact  with  the  world  narrows  the  point  of  view 
and  sets  the  affections  on  things  on  the  earth  that  the 
child  becomes  impervious  to  the  claims  of  the  funda- 
mental religious  principles  on  his  life.  So  I  would  say 
that  the  religious  instruction  for  children  should  begin, 
as  the  Kindergarten  does,  with  doing  religious  acts, 
rather  than  with  learning  theological  definitions;  with 


autii-ceis  bp  Ec^.  laterrncc  C  Cole,  "JS-D.,  |3l).D.  53 

leading  a  religious  life,  rather  than  with  acquiring 
religious  information.  We  must  begin  our  work  in  the 
world  in  which  the  child  is  actually  living  and  in  the 
terms  with  which  he  is  familiar.  It  is  by  taking,  for 
example,  the  natural  tendency  of  the  child  towards 
the  act  of  prayer,  and  aiding  him  in  his  expression  of 
this  impulse,  guiding  his  expression  of  it,  stimulating 
his  desire  to  maintain  his  relation  with  God,  making 
opportunity  for  him  to  exercise  this  function,  praying 
with  him,  developing  within  him  the  sense  of  the  value 
of  common  prayer,  beginning  with  the  mere  impulse 
and  developing  its  possibilities  by  practice^  not  by  the 
mere  acquisition  of  information,  —this,  I  take  it,  is  the 
method  by  which  the  Church  ought  to  provide  for  the 
religious  education  of  her  children,  in  its  first  stages. 
Similar  work  can  be  done  in  the  simpler  acts  of  the 
religious  life,  as,  for  example,  the  making  of  a  medita- 
tion, a  self-examination,  etc. 

The  result  of  our  present  prevailing  system,  which 
proceeds  on  the  supposition  that  the  aim  of  religious 
instruction  is  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  rather  than 
the  development  of  the  spiritual  life,  is  to  leave  with 
the  child  the  impression  that  the  religious  facts  of  life 
are  things  to  be  learned  by  rote,  speculated  about, 
discussed  in  an  academic  fashion,  but  that  they  have 
no  bearing  on  the  life  of  a  man,  that  they  are  not  to 
be  lived,  but  simply  thought.  It  is  like  beginning  a 
child's  education  in  the  schools  with  a  theory  of 
knowledge  starting  from  a  definition  of  the  transcen- 
dental Ego.  The  real  method  of  procedure,  I  am 
convinced,  is  from  the  primary  religious  activities  of 


54  STIje  Crppt  Conference  on  ^ttnUap'^cljooIs 

the  child  to  higher  and  better  organized  and  developed 
activities,  bringing  in  one  by  one  the  analyses  and 
definitions  of  the  various  elements  involved  in  the 
activities,  and  determining  the  concepts  which  enter 
in  only  vaguely  at  first,  but  which  little  by  little  may 
be  defined  and  differentiated  from  the  general  concept 
involved  in  the  religious  impulses. 

"Men  who  are  early  bathed  in  the  Dead  Sea  of 
moral  platitudes,"  say  Hegel,  "come  out  of  it  invul- 
nerable like  Achilles,  but  with  the  human  force  washed 
out  of  them  in  the  process."  I  am  not  altogether  sure 
that  the  same  remaa'k  could  not  be  made  about  our 
religious  instruction.  The  danger  of  abstract  religious 
definition,  precept,  doctrine  is  a  very  real  one,  unless 
it  be  the  outgrowth  of  a  life,  and  gain  its  significance 
only  as  it  tends  to  that  life.  It  is  on  the  basis  of  the 
development  of  the  spiritual  life  in  its  normal  order 
that  the  method  of  our  curriculum  must  proceed.  It 
should  be  the  outline  of  the  evolution  and  develop- 
ment of  the  religious  life  of  a  child,  a  youth,  a  man, 
and  should  never  allow  itself  to  sink  to  the  the  level 
of  an  impotent,  irrational,  antiquated  list  of  things  to 
be  learned. 

2.  But  not  only  must  our  program  of  curriculum 
proceed  with  reference  to  the  content  and  activities  of 
the  pupil's  mind,  it  must  also  take  into  account  the 
relative  value,  significance,  and  pregnancy,  and  the 
logical  position  with  reference  to  one  another  of  the 
various  divisions  and  subjects  that  have  to  do  with 
the  content  of  religious  education.  On  the  objective 
side,  as  well  as  the  subjective,  it  must  determine  what 


antjrcfifii  Ijp  Kcb.  latorencc  C  Cole,  ^.^D.,  |)!).^.  55 

is  the  really  significant  fact,  and  proceed  from  the 
concrete  to  the  abstract,  the  simple  to  the  complex, 
the  undifferentiated  example  of  the  life  to  the  analysis 
and  definition  of  the  principles  involved  in  it.  The 
center  of  all  the  subject-matter  of  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  must  be  the  Incarnate  Life  of  Him  Who  is 
"the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life."  About  that 
Life  she  may  group  all  the  events  of  sacred  and  pro- 
fane history,  all  the  phenomena  of  human  life,  all  the 
aspirations  and  speculations  of  human  nature,  but  they 
get  all  the  meaning  they  possess  for  the  Church 
through  their  connection  with  His  Life.  Thus  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  the  teaching  of  the  Church 
is  to  be  found  in  the  transcendent  Life  of  the  Incar- 
nate Son  of  God.  Thus  it  is  that  nothing  should  come 
before  this  Life  in  the  educational  process  of  the 
Church. 

Instead  of  beginning  the  study  of  religion  as 
we  do  in  many  instances,  with  stories  from  the  Old 
Testament,  with  lists  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible,  with 
accounts  of  ancient  monarchies,  of  by-gone  civiliza- 
tions, even  of  the  bugs  and  beetles,  or  the  flora  and 
fauna  of  the  Holy  Land,  the  first  impression  on  the 
plastic  mind  of  the  child  should  be  the  simple  story 
of  the  Life  of  lives.  As  the  Apostolic  Church  went 
forth  preaching  "  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection,"  so  it 
is  in  the  simple  and  concrete,  and  yet  never  exhausted 
Life  of  the  Incarnate  Son  of  God  that  we  shall  find 
the  key  to  the  proper  procedure  in  the  exhibition  of 
the  subject-matter  which  the  Church  has  to  teach. 
The  Old  Testament  has  a  place  in  the  curriculum  of 


56  CI)c  €rppt  QDonfercncc  on  ^unUap  .^cbools 

the  Sunday-school  only  as  it  illustrates  or  points  for- 
ward to  the  consummation  of  its  hopes  or  the  realiza- 
tion of  its  aspirations  in  the  Person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  the  advisability  of  teaching  it  at  all  in  our  Sunday- 
schools  apart  from  such  connection  is,  in  the  present 
state  of  our  religious  education,  very  doubtful.  At 
any  rate,  it  should  come  late  in  the  course  when  the 
central  facts  have  been  taught,  and  the  pupil  is  able 
to  grasp  its  remote  bearings  upon  the  central  fact. 

The  outcome  of  all  this  is  that  the  principle  upon 
which  the  drafting  of  a  curriculum  is  to  proceed  is  a 
practical  principle.  The  purpose  of  the  Church  in  her 
teaching  is  not  to  educate  a  mind,  but  to  develop  a 
life.  Her  chief  end  in  education  is  not  the  imparting 
of  information,  but  the  making  of  a  man,  complete, 
fully  developed  in  all  his  possibilities.  It  is  by  the 
principles  which  govern  this  development  that  the 
course  of  our  curriculum  should  be  determined. 

But  some  one  may  protest  that  this  gives  us  no  curri- 
culum after  all.  This  is  quite  true,  and  yet  it  is  as 
near  as  we  can  come  to  the  matter  under  present  con- 
ditions. While  the  members  of  the  Church  differ  so 
radically  about  what  is  necessary  to  the  development 
of  this  life  which  forms  the  centre  of  all  her  teaching, 
I,  for  one,  do  not  see  the  way  clear  to  the  working 
out  of  a  course  of  study  in  detail.  I  could  probably 
construct  one  that  would  satisfy  my  own  convictions 
in  the  matter,  but  that  would  not  be  the  mind  of  the 
Church;  and  my  brethren  would  be  quite  justified  in 
rejecting  my  whole  system  if  they  did  not  agree  with 
my  fundamental  principles.    The  Church  must  muster 


atmrcflig  bp  Kcto.  latorencc  C  Cole,  ^.D.,  |j)().^.  57 

up  courage  enough  to  interpret  her  own  formularies 
before  we  shall  have  any  curriculum  that  can  serve 
for  more  than  a  fragment  of  the  Church.  We  must 
start  from  the  same  point  if  we  are  to  travel  every 
mile  of  the  way  together.  In  the  meantime  we  must 
remember  that  "the  life  is  more  than  meat,  and  the 
body  than  raiment." 

From  all  of  this  it  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  writer's 
opinion,  the  making  of  a  curriculum  for  our  Sunday- 
schools  is  not  likely  to  have  an  early  solution.  If  the 
purpose  of  Church  teaching  were  mere  information, 
the  task  would  be  simple.  We  should  be  able  to  apply 
to  our  problem  the  laws  which  have  proved  themselves 
in  the  secular  schools.  But  our  problem  is  a  totally 
distinct  one,  and  has  but  little  in  common  with  that 
of  the  day  school,  as  it  is  ordinarily  conceived.  Sub- 
ject-matter, purpose,  conditions,  all  are  radically 
different,  and  the  principles  which  apply  to  the  solu- 
tion of  one  must  not  be  forced  on  the  other.  Before 
we  are  in  a  position  to  draft  a  curriculum  which  shall 
adequately  meet  the  conditions,  we  must  have,  first  of 
all,  a  much  more  intelligent  and  thorough  analysis  and 
study  of  the  religious  beginnings,  possibilities,  and 
tendencies  of  the  child-mind  than  any  of  us  have  yet 
made.  We  must  learn  better  than  we  have  heretofore 
how  these  beginnings  may  be  aided  and  furthered  in 
their  natural  process  of  evolution  into  the  fullness  of 
the  life  which  is  to  express  in  the  world  the  Natural 
Religion.  We  must  be  ready  to  do  much  preliminary 
work  which  may  never  show  in  the  resultant  curricu- 
lum, when,  in  God's  good  time,  it  comes;  we  must  be 


$8  dLlit  Crppt  Confcvcncc  on  ^nnliap  ^cboolfi 

ready  to  wait  patiently  for  results;  we  must  do  nothing 
premature — "-more  haste,  less  speed."  The  study  of 
a  whole  is  generally  much  more  difficult  than  the  study 
of  any  of  its  particular  parts;  but  as  the  mission  of 
the  Church  is  the  development  of  the  whole  man  after 
the  pattern  of  the  Perfect  Man,  we  must  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  that,  "that  the  man  of  God  may 
be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works." 


BY 

Prof.  Samuel  T.  Dutton,  M.  A. 

Of  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University.  New  York 


^ 


LAYMAN  who  has  very  little  time  at 
his  disposal,  and  who  has  not  been 
immediately  engaged  in  Sunday  teach- 
ing should  not  venture  to  discuss  so 
great  and  vital  a  question.  I  am  glad, 
however,  to  join  with  others  in  an 
attempt  to  throw  light  upon  a  problem  which  is  second 
to  none  in  importance.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  do 
all  that  is  implied  in  the  title,  printed  on  the  pro- 
gramme. 

To  successfully  co-ordinate  Christian  truth  with  the 
mind  of  the  child  is  a  work  which  has  been  well 
begun,  but  which  will  not  soon  be  completed.  In 
fact,  I  believe  it  would  be  a  misfortune  if  the  matter 
were  regarded  as  closed.  As  in  all  other  great  under- 
takings, it  is  the  experience  gained  by  long  striving 
which  brings  insight  and  wisdom,  and  finally  leads  to 

59 


6o  Cl)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^onliap'^cbDolis 

success.  I  will  venture  to  submit  a  few  simple,  yet 
definite,  suggestions,  in  the  hope  that  they  may,  by 
inference  at  least,  add  point  and  interest  to  the  gen- 
eral discussion. 

In  the  first  place,  the  child  is  one  in  his  life  and 
possibilities,  and  the  educative  process  is  one  also. 
The  child  comes  from  the  hand  of  God  as  his  most 
perfect  and  most  beautiful  work.  He  does  not  need 
to  be  reformed  or  changed.  Whether  born  in  the 
purest  Christian  home  or  in  the  slums,  he  is  still 
perfect  and  lovable,  and  comes  as  near  expressing  the 
thought  and  wish  of  God  as  anything  that  our  eyes 
are  permitted  to  see.  That  children  often  have  to  be 
reformed  may  be  partly  due  to  their  heredity,  but  it 
is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  been  spoiled 
by  bad  environment  or  artificial  methods  of  nurture. 
Total  depravity  in  children  is  more  an  acquired  trait 
than  an  inherited  one. 

Again,  the  natural  child  is  wonderfully  plastic  and 
malleable.  How  much  it  would  mean  to  the  world  if 
that  sweet  sensitiveness  and  ability  to  respond  could 
always  be  met  by  wise,  prudent,  and  sincere  treatment, 
at  least  until  the  child's  character  has  been  largely 
formed  in  ways  of  truth  and  goodness.  We  have, 
then,  at  least  two  fundamental  principles:  first,  the 
unity  of  childhood;  and  second,  his  wonderful  capacity 
for  being  influenced  and  taught. 

I  submit  that  all  those,  whether  in  Church,  in  home, 
or  in  school,  who  have  anything  to  do  with  infant 
nurture,  should  throw  the  main  emphasis  upon  the 
conservation  of  childhood,  upon  keeping  him  as  God 


torcss  bp  Prof,  ^mntl  QT.  5)utton,  iR,^.  6i 

made  him,  seeking  to  secure  for  him  a  simple,  natural, 
healthy  growth,  trusting  less  to  formal  instruction 
than  to  that  kind  of  nutrition  which  comes  through 
environment  and  personal  influence.  There  is  often 
danger  of  teaching  too  much  rather  than  too  little,  of 
forcing  upon  the  child  food  which  he  cannot  digest, 
thus  preventing  the  assimilation  of  more  wholesome 
nourishment.  And  I  cannot  help  saying  here  that  the 
validity  of  the  home  and  family  life,  where  the  little 
child  spends  these  years  of  plasticity,  becomes  of  tre- 
mendous consequence.  We  are  beginning  at  the 
wrong  end  of  this  question  if,  while  trying  to  improve 
Christian  teaching  for  children  and  youth,  we  do  not 
bring  every  possible  influence  to  bear  to  make  the 
atmosphere  of  the  American  home  such  as  to  foster 
the  kind  of  life  we  wish  to  see  exemplified  in  the 
young. 

If  any  one  thinks  I  have  made  too  unqualified  a 
statement  as  to  the  pure  quality  of  natural  children,  I 
will  remind  him  of  the  statement  of  the  Master,  that 
"of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  There  were 
no  if's  or  an's  accompanying  this  statement.  As  He 
used  the  term  "little  children,"  we  know  whom  He 
meant;  and  we  who  have  had  experience  with  the 
young  know  too  well  how  sad  it  is  that  many  little 
children  are  not  permitted  to  enter  the  Kingdom 
through  ways  of  simple,  childlike  faith  and  trust. 

Second,  turning  our  attention  to  that  age  when 
formal  education  may  properly  be  begun,  we  have  to 
face  a  very  complex  problem.  Art  never  accomplishes 
anything  by  working  alone.     Great  masterpieces  in 


62  CI)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unljap  ^cljoolg 

music,  in  sculpture,  and  in  painting  breathe  the  spirit 
which  comes  from  the  heart  of  Nature.  They  have  a 
touch  of  the  divine.  Thus  it  is  in  education.  Nature 
lays  the  foundations  in  all  training — physical,  intel- 
lectual, moral  and  spiritual.  The  art  of  man  gives 
poise,  balance,  and  finish.  In  recent  years  all  educa- 
tional reform  has  tended  to  make  education  more  natu- 
ral and  less  artificial.  The  more  that  teachers  in  the 
day-school  and  Sunday-school  recognize  the  potency 
of  other  forces  and  realize  that  their  work  is  simply 
a  part — and  but  a  small  part — of  the  whole,  the 
more  are  they  like  artists  and  less  like  mechanics. 

Heredity,  environment,  personal  influence,  and 
teaching,  with  many  other  subsidiary  influences,  are  all 
involved  in  the  process  of  education.  The  younger 
the  child,  the  less  should  instruction  per  se  be  a 
dominant  factor.  Nutrition  and  exercise  are  the 
generic  terms  which  express  at  once  the  cause  and  the 
means  of  the  unfolding  life.  Everything  that  the 
child  sees  and  hears  in  the  home,  on  the  street,  in  the 
day-school,  on  the  play-ground,  enters  into  the  mighty 
stream  of  influence  that  flows  in  upon  him,  giving 
shape  to  thought,  feeling,  desire,  and  ambition.  The 
primary  stage  is,  therefore,  a  period  of  rapid  absorp- 
tion, and  the  function  of  the  teacher  is  to  bring  to  the 
mind  of  the  child,  in  as  concrete  a  form  as  possible, 
the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful.  The  child's 
play,  if  properly  directed,  is  a  powerful  means  of 
cultivating  social  feelings  and  social  habits.  His  toys 
and  pictures  ought  to  be  selected  with  considerable 
care,  as  they  often  make  an  indelible  impression  upon 


the  young  mind.  This  is  an  age  for  stories,  but  there 
is  the  greatest  opportunity  for  doing  harm  unless  the 
stories  promote  healthy  feeling  and  sentiment.  Thus 
the  task  which  fathers,  mothers,  and  teachers  have  is 
to  throw  around  the  children  those  conditions  that 
foster  health  in  every  department.  There  is  no  place 
here  for  making  scholars,  philosophers,  or  Churchmen. 
We  want  open-minded,  happy,  trusting  children.  We 
must  train  and  teach  them  to-day  in  such  a  manner 
that  they  are  ready  to  listen  to-morrow;  and  our  skill 
at  every  stage  is  to  be  measured  by  the  good  sense  we 
show  in  adapting  the  materials  of  instruction  to  the 
child's  mind.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  best  of 
instruction  in  the  home,  in  the  day-school,  or  in  the 
Sunday-school  is  unconscious.  It  is  personal.  It 
is  one  of  the  wisest  provisions  of  the  Creator  that 
the  personality  of  the  adult  has  a  powerful  effect 
upon  the  child.  The  face,  the  voice,  the  tone, 
conduct,  and  the  sentiments  v/hich  children  hear 
expressed,  all  enter  into  the  very  fibre  of  their  being, 
and  are  more  potent  than  creeds  pasted  upon  the 
memory  or  precepts  which  are  but  dimly  understood. 
The  human  race  could  never  have  attained  civilization, 
and  could  never  advance  with  confidence  toward  that 
higher  stage  which  some  have  chosen  to  call  "  Human- 
ism," unless  this  supreme  influence  were  ever  at  work. 
Add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  child  grows  and  improves 
and  becomes  strong  through  his  own  self-activity,  and 
you  have  the  complete  formula  for  education 

The  teacher  is  a  guide  and  a  leader.     He  creates 
nothing,   and    his    strongest    hold  is  in    the    personal 


64  ^l^c  Crppt  (tonfcrtncc  on  :^ttntjaiif  :i>cI)ool£{ 

influence  he  wields  and  in  the  degree  of  confidence  he 
inspires.  If  he  is  in  any  sense  a  fraud,  or  simply  an 
echo  of  somebody's  else  goodness,  whether  it  be  in  the 
Bible  or  elsewhere,  or  if  he  is  a  teacher  simply  for  the 
money  it  brings  or  the  credit  or  social  position,  he  is 
apt  to  be  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to  the  child's 
education  in  the  best  sense.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  is  true  and  honest  and  sincere,  and  in  his  bearing 
carries  the  stamp  of  the  Christian  man  or  the  Christian 
woman,  it  matters  not  whether  he  meets  children  un- 
der the  roof  of  a  Church  or  in  the  day-school,  he  is  none 
the  less  the  Christian  teacher.  If  to  personal  worth 
there  is  added  pedagogic  skill,  he  will  give  an  appetite 
for  truth,  he  will  arouse  interest,  he  will  lead  his 
pupils  into  such  varied  activities  as  will  bring  daily 
accretion  of  strength  and  courage.  Whether  he  teaches 
geography  or  the  Bible,  the  teaching  will  be  real — it 
will  touch  the  child's  life,  he  will  be  intensely  alert, 
and  he  will  go  from  each  lesson  anxious  to  know  more 
and  to  do  more. 

Third,  in  what  I  have  said  hitherto  I  have  kept  in 
mind  the  necessity  of  treating  the  child's  education  as 
a  unit.  I  consider  it  a  misfortune  that  teachers  in 
Sunday-schools  should  usually  meet  by  themselves  to 
consider  the  nature  of  their  task,  and  that  those 
engaged  in  day-schools  should  do  the  same  thing.  I 
do  not  believe  that  we  have  any  right,  strictly  speak- 
ing, to  regard  the  day-school  as  secular  and  the 
Sunday-school  as  sacred.  I  am  aware  that  it  is  not 
possible  in  our  public  schools  at  present  to  do  much 
in  the  way  of  Bible  teaching;  but,  keeping  in  mind  the 


principles  already  enunciated,  I  must  contend  that  the 
spirit,  the  atmosphere,  and  the  motive  operating  in  the 
day-schools  are  as  vital  to  the  Christian  growth  of 
children  and  youth  as  anything  that  can  be  accom- 
plished by  the  Church  and  Sunday-school ;  and,  because 
of  the  greater  opportunity  which  the  day-school  has  to 
mould  and  influence  life,  it  is  necessary  that  the 
Sunday-school  aim  to  supplement  this  larger  work  in 
the  best  possible  way;  and  the  influence  of  preaching 
should  be  directed  not  merely  to  the  strengthening 
and  up-building  of  the  Christian  home,  but  should 
recognize  the  public  schools  and  their  teachers  as  the 
most  potent  of  all  forces  for  safeguarding  the  children 
of  the  land.  The  Sunday-school,  I  repeat,  may  best 
serve  its  purpose  when  it  supplements  the  knowledge 
and  experience  of  the  child  gained  in  the  home  and 
day-school.  This  implies  that  the  teacher  in  the 
Sunday-school  should  know  what  the  home  has  done 
or  has  failed  to  do;  what  the  day-school  is  doing  and 
what  it  fails  to  do;  and,  in  the  small  fragment  of  time 
which  he  has  on  Sunday,  he  should  try  to  give  that 
touch  which  shall  add  completeness  and  finish  to  the 
educative  process. 

There  is  an  ignorant  conceit  and  a  pretense  of  good- 
ness in  some  of  the  Sunday-school  work  of  the  past 
that  is  destructive  and  vicious.  It  treats  the  child  as 
though  he  were  to  lead  two  lives,  one  on  Sunday,  and 
the  other  during  the  week.  Thus  Sunday-school  teach- 
ing has  often  been  effervescing  froth  when  it  should 
have  been  a  sensible  contribution  to  the  child's  whole 
life — something  that  would  continue  with  him  through 


66  Cf)c  C-rppt  Conference  on  :§)tinliap  :§)cl)ool6 

all  the  experiences  of  the  week.  The  object  of  this 
serious  attempt  now  being  made  to  put  Sunday-school 
instruction  upon  a  solid  footing  points  in  the  direction 
I  have  indicated.  Sunday-school  workers  are  inquir- 
ing of  other  teachers  of  experience  and  wisdom. 

Instruction  in  Sunday-school  and  everywhere  is  to 
be  less  formal  and  more  real,  less  enslaved  to  language 
and  made  more  vital  in  conduct  and  daily  life.  Essen- 
tial Christian  truth  is  simple  and  entirely  appropriate 
to  the  needs  of  children  unless  some  human  ignoramus 
conceals  its  meaning  and  application  by  a  waste  of 
unnecessary  words.  I  am  aware  that  there  are  many 
things  in  the  Bible  that  children  and  even  adults  can 
not  understand.  Many  sermons  have  been  preached 
in  the  past  that  were  no  more  intelligible  to  adults 
than  they  were  to  children.  I  do  not  mean  this  kind 
of  teaching.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  are  to  exploit  to 
young  minds  all  the  tortuous  iniquities  of  partly  civi- 
lized peoples  whose  doings  are  recorded  in  the  Old 
Testament,  or  the  grossness  shown  in  the  individual 
lives  of  many  Bible  characters.  I  do  mean  to  sug- 
gest there  is  ample  material  both  in  the  Old  and  the 
New  Testaments  for  teaching  what  children  need  to 
know,  and  what,  under  the  right  conditions,  they  ought 
to  know.  I  am  not  in  sympathy  with  that  pedagogical 
school  which  would  defer  a  knowledge  of  Jesus  and 
His  teachings  to  the  stage  of  adolescence.  That 
would  be  a  singular  response  to  Christ's  injunction, 
"Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  Me."  The  fun- 
damental principles  of  love,  obedience,  truth,  faith, 
and  salvation  are  literally  meat  for  babes.      Using  the 


'xinvcss  ijp  prof.  Samuel  C  £)atton,  iH.^.  67 

stories  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  singularly  lucid 
teaching  of  the  Master,  it  is  possible  to  bring  forth  a 
rich  suggestiveness  that  is  really  the  best  part  of  teach- 
ing. Fortunately,  the  memory  of  the  child  is  able  to 
gather  up  and  put  aside  for  life-long  service  selected 
passages  of  Scripture  which  contain  the  essence  of 
essential  truth. 

Most  important  is  it  that  at  every  stage  children  are 
deeply  interested,  have  confidence  in  their  teachers, 
and  can  see  in  the  lives  of  some,  at  least,  of  those 
nearest  to  them  the  exemplification  of  Christian  char- 
acter. 

Finally,  I  will  speak  briefly  of  some  of  the  general 
considerations  to  be  kept  in  mind  in  Bible  teaching, 
for  I  believe  they  are  the  same  as  in  teaching  other 
subjects.  It  is  impossible  to  attempt  here  any  analysis 
of  the  various  efforts  that  have  been  made  to  prepare 
graded  courses  of  study.  I  have  examined  with  much 
interest  several  of  these,  and  the  one  for  which  I 
believe  the  Secretary  of  this  organization  is  responsible 
seems  to  me  excellent.  If  I  were  to  criticise  it  I 
should  say  that  perhaps  it  attempted  too  much;  that 
it  might  lead  to  what  in  ordinary  school  life  we  call 
over-pressure  and  superficial  results.  Its  general  plan, 
however,  is  excellent.  Of  other  courses  which  I  have 
seen,  the  best  is  that  offered  by  the  Bible  Study  Union 
or  those  which  are  patterned  after  it.  The  advance 
shown  in  these  courses  over  those  of  a  few  years  ago 
is  seen  in  the  use  that  is  made  of  pictorial  material 
and  stories  from  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments 
in  the  lower  grades;    for  I  find  little  evidence  that 


68  CIjc  Ctppt  Conference  on  ^ur.liap  ^cljools 

those  who  have  studied  this  matter  most  carefully  are 
willing  to  defer  a  knowledge  of  Christ  to  any  particular 
period  of  the  child's  life.  Whatever  course  is  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Sunday-school  workers,  large  freedom 
should  be  given  in  their  use  of  it,  not  only  because  of 
the  differences  in  the  capacity  and  stage  of  advance- 
ment of  pupils,  but  also  because  of  great  differences 
in  the  ability  and  pedagogic  facility  of  teachers. 
Always  and  everywhere  quality  should  be  sought  before 
quantity.  The  whole  conduct  of  the  Sunday-school 
should  keep  this  in  mind.  It  is  not  the  length  of  the 
opening  exercises,  or  the  number  'of  hymns  that  are 
sung,  or  the  length  of  the  prayers  that  are  made, 
which  will  determine  the  value  of  the  hour.  Anything 
tending  to  weary  and  give  to  children  a  distaste  for 
the  Sunday-school  should  be  avoided.  There  is  hygiene 
in  everything,  not  only  in  the  ventilation  and  arrange- 
ment of  the  school  room,  but  in  the  program,  the 
significance  of  exercises,  the  variety,  and  in  the  spirit 
and  atmosphere  which  accompany  the  teaching. 

What,  then,  are  the  principles  which  teachers  are  to 
recognize  in  using  any  course  of  Bible  instruction  to 
make  their  work  truly  scientific  and  professional?  The 
terms  "selection,"  "interest, "and  "correlation" should 
be  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  all  teachers.  From  the 
material  at  hand  the  teacher's  judgment  should  select 
that  which  is  most  appropriate  to  the  time  and  occa- 
sion. This  selection  should  be  made  with  the  idea  of 
arousing  and  continuing  the  greatest  possible  interest. 
Is  it  not  apparent  to  every  OiX  that  the  permanent 
interest  which  the  child  has  in  the  Saviour  and  in  the 


Slaiivcfifi  h^  iprof.  ^amutl  C.  button,  iW.^.  69 

relation  which  He  bears  to  his  own  Hfe  is  of  vastly- 
more  importance  than  any  amount  of  material  that  is 
memorized  or  is  taught  in  a  perfunctory  manner? 

If  our  Sunday-school  teaching    cannot   be    accom- 
panied with  a  good  degree  of  spontaneity  and  living, 
interest,  it  is  likely  to  largely  fail. 

But  both  se-lection  and  interest  are  incomplete  with- 
out one  other  factor,  and  that  is  Correlation.  This  is 
most  vital.  If  we  study  the  work  of  Jesus  as  a 
teacher,  we  do  not  find  Him  wanting  in  any  of  these 
points.  His  selection  of  topics  of  instruction  was 
made  with  reference  to  interest,  and  the  interest  was 
secured  because  this  teaching  easily  correlated  itself 
with  the  daily  knowledge  and  experience  of  the  people 
whom  He  taught.  He  was  not  abstract  or  formal; 
the  element  of  personality  nearly  always  appeared. 
He  began,  "A  certain  woman  "  did  this,  or  "A  certain 
man  "  did  that.  The  interest  was  aroused  at  once. 
He  appealed  to  human  feelings,  human  struggles;  and 
the  truths  He  taught  were  so  universal  that  they  are 
as  fresh  and  interesting  and  as  easily  correlated  to-day 
as  when  they  were  uttered.  But  it  seems  to  me  that 
we  shall  fall  far  short  of  our  opportunity,  and  do  in- 
justice to  the  manner  and  mission  of  Christianity  if  we 
do  not  find  a  fuller  correlation  of  Sunday  teaching 
than  is  suggested  by  most  of  the  courses  of  study  I 
have  seen. 

Take  that  commanding  utterance  of  Christ, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 
There  was  no  need  of  leaving  such  a  truth  without  its 


70  (iri)c  Crppt  Ccnfcvcncc  on  ^'untjap  S)cI)oolfi 

being  thoroughly  welded  and  fixed  in  many  concrete 
applications.  What  is  meant  by  loving  one's  neighbor 
as  one's  self?  What  an  opportunity  here  for  young 
people  to  find  countless  illustrations  of  the  actual  liv- 
ing of  this  principle.  Nothing  is  more  desirable  than 
that  children  be  able  to  point  to  good  men  of  to-day 
as  well  as  to  good  men  of  the  Bible.  They  "want  liv- 
ing examples  of  self-sacrifice,  devotion,  loving  service 
for  others.  They  should  see  that  the  mission  and 
intention  of  Christ  are  fully  expressed  in  our  laws,  our 
customs,  in  social  reform,  in  philanthropy,  and  in  mis- 
sion work,  and  that  multitudes  of -people  to-day  are 
actually  living  this  commandment,  and  ready  to  suffer 
or  die  if  need  be  for  the  truth  and  for  the  Master. 
We  need  not  go  even  to  China  or  South  Africa  or  India 
for  these  examples  of  Christian  heroism,  but  may  find 
them  in  our  own  cities,  call  them  by  name,  and  rejoice 
that,  although  Christ  is  not  here  in  person,  He  is  here 
in  the  hearts  and  characters  of  multitudes  of  men  and 
women  who  are  doing  His  work,  and,  in  loving  and 
serving  their  fellow  men,  are  loving  and  serving  Him. 
There  are  at  least  two  kinds  of  correlation;  one 
makes  sure  that  truth  is  connected  with  other  related 
truth;  that  cross-references  are  instituted,  so  that 
what  is  taught,  whether  in  history,  in  Nature,  or  in 
human  experience,  becomes  of  permanent  value.  The 
other  and  more  important  correlation  is  that  which 
makes  truth  vital  in  the  daily  experience  of  the  learner ; 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  Bible  teaching  is  most  effica- 
cious when  it  makes  use  of  this  opportunity.  The 
Bible    is   a   guide.     What   should   the  guide    do?     It 


SHjUrcBB  i)p  |)rnf.  Samuel  C  Dutton,  fSl.^,  71 

should  illumine  the  path  we  are  to  walk,  and  lead  us 
in  the  right  direction.  Our  most  important  lessons 
are  to  be  learned  not  from  the  guide,  but  from  our 
experience  while  we  are  guided.  So  every  seeker  after 
truth,  young  or  old,  must,  to  a  certain  extent,  do  his 
own  thinking,  interpret  his  own  experience,  and  grow 
strong,  if  he  ever  becomes  strong,  because  he  is  liv- 
ing day  by  day  the  truth  which  he  has  learned  to 
respect. 

We  are  indebted  to  John  Friedrick  Herbart  for  the 
doctrine  of  Interest;  but  he  has  given  us  something 
equally  valuable  in  his  five  formal  subjects  of  teaching, 
namely:  Preparation,  Presentation,  Apperception, 
Generalization,  and  Application.  I  will  take  time  to 
speak  of  only  the  last.  His  idea  was  that  when  a  general 
truth  has  been  developed,  the  teacher  should  lead  his 
pupil  to  find  the  application  of  that  truth  in  the  world 
about  him,  whether  it  be  the  principle  of  natural 
science,  of  ethics,  politics,  or  religion.  This  idea,  it 
seems  to  me,  should  hold  good.  The  difficulty  is  that 
too  few  teachers  ever  have  time  for  the  application. 
The  bell  rings  before  the  subject-matter  has  been  com- 
pleted, and  the  threads  of  the  lesson  are  not  gathered 
up.  There  is  no  welding  together  of  interest  and 
personal  experience.  So  I  say  again,  let  us  have 
quality  rather  than  quantity.  And  the  highest  point 
of  Christian  teaching  is  never  reached  until  the  indi- 
vidual soul  sees  the  application  of  truth  to  his  own 
life  and  the  lives  of  those  about  him,  and  realizes  that 
the  Bible  as  well  as  the  Church  are  simply  means  to 
an  end,  and  that  end  is  a  life  of  faith  and  hope  and 
service. 


aDaptatton  of  tl^e  13(1)10*58011001  Curnc- 
ulum  to  tl^e  Ci^ilD 

B  Y 

George  W.  Pease 

Professor  of  Pedagogy,  Bible  Normal  College,  Springfield,  Mass. 

I.    The  Ends  Sought. 

^N  discussing  such  a  subject  as  the  adapta- 
^C^'Sr^  tion  of  the  Bible-school  curriculum  to  the 
\^g^.  child  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  clear  view 
i^^^^i  of  the  ends  sought  in  all  religious  train- 
ing, for  this  will  serve  to  guide  and  steady  the  pro- 
gress of  our  thought.  These  ends  seem  to  me  to  be 
four  in  number: 

a)  To  give  a  knowledge  of  religious  principles.  Man 
is  a  religious  being.  Brinton  in  his  "Religions  of 
Primitive  Peoples  "  says  :  "The  religiosity  of  man  is  a 
part  of  his  psychical  being.  In  the  nature  and  laws  of 
the  human  mind,  in  its  intellect,  sympathies,  emotions, 
and  passions  lie  the  well-springs  of  all  religions,  modern 

72 


3lMrc60  iij)  prof,  (Bcuxst  W,  IJease  73 

or  ancient,  Christian  or  heatlien."  Belief  in  the  super- 
natural finds  expression  in  the  worship  of  some  object, 
power  or  person  external  to  self.  These  religious  con- 
ceptions and  forms  of  worship  are  untrue,  crude  and 
often  grotesque,  but  have  a  large  influence  upon  the 
people.  This  religious  instinct  is  a  part  of  the  child's 
inheritance  from  the  race,  and  as  this  part  of  his  nature 
develops  he  needs  help  in  forming  right  conceptions  of 
God  and  His  relation  to  man.  He  needs  intelligent 
guidance  to  those  vital  truths  which  shall  set  him  free, 
and  which  shall  enable  him  to  actualize  his  potential 
manhood.  The  matter  of  instruction  must  then  be 
selected  with  reference  to  such  right  conceptions 
and  vital  truths. 

b)  But  more  than  this  the  intellect  must  be  trained 
to  a  keenness  of  ethical  vision.  It  is  not  enough  to 
know  great  principles.  He  must  be  able  to  see  clearly 
the  occasions  calling  for  their  application.  Some  temp- 
tations are  very  evident,  others  very  subtle.  This  is 
illustrated  by  the  temptations  of  Jesus  in  the  wilder- 
ness. This  ethical  sense  must  be  developed  by  pre- 
senting to  the  child  concrete  cases  involving  ethical 
problems,  and  guiding  him  to  their  solution,  /.  e.  the 
child  must  be  led  to  do  his  own  moralizing. 

c)  It  is  possible  for  one  to  have  knowledge  and 
insight  and  yet  not  live  in  accordance  with  such.  The 
feelings,  the  springs  of  action,  must  be  enlisted  and 
won  to  high  ideals.  These  ideals  are  constantly  chang- 
ing. Each  period  has  its  own  ideal,  and  the  method 
of  presentation  is  important  in  this  connection.    There 


74  Cl)c  Crj>pt  Conference  on  ^'untiaj>  ^cljools 

are  two  ways  of  studying  a  flower,  the  method  of  the 
analyist  and  the  method  of  the  artist.  The  affections 
are  won  by  the  latter  method. 

d)  Given  these  three,  there  is  yet  another  end,  the 
development  of  power.  This  comes  only  through  ac- 
tion, service.  The  Bible-school  is  weak  here.  Josephus 
says,  "  For  there  are  two  ways  of  coming  at  any  sort  of 
learning  and  a  moral  conduct  of  life,  the  one  is  by  in- 
struction in  words,  the  other  by  practical  exercises. 
Now,  other  lawgivers  have  separated  these  two  ways 
in  their  opinions,  and,  choosing  one-of  those  ways  of 
instruction,  or  that  which  best  pleased  every  one  of 
them,  neglected  the  other.... But  for  our  legislator 
(Moses)  he  very  carefully  joined  these  two  methods  of 
instruction  together  ;  for  he  neither  left  these  practi- 
cal exercises  to  go  on  without  verbal  instruction,  nor 
did  he  permit  the  hearing  of  the  law  to  proceed  with- 
out the  exercises  for  practice." 

The  school  then  must  do  what  it  can  to  provide 
opportunities  for  service.  The  home  is  the  main  fac- 
tor here,  and  a  present  day  need  is  the  co-operating 
home. 

2.    The  Subject  Matter  of  the  Curriculum. 

If  these  are  the  real  ends  to  be  sought  for  religious 
training  the  subject  matter  of  instruction  must  be 
selected  with  reference  to  them. 

a)  The  selected  matter  must  touch  the  child's  inter- 
ests and  supply  his  needs  at  each  stage  of  development, 


Distinct  stages  of  development  are  an  accepted  psycho- 
logic fact.  Each  stage  must  be  lived  out  completely 
as  a  preparation  for  the  next.  Interests  and  needs  are 
different  in  the  several  stages.  That  which  interests 
a  child  he  makes  a  part  of  himself.  His  native  interests 
however  are  not  the  sole  guide.  The  needs  of  the  hour 
must  be  known  and  supplied.  The  life  of  to-day 
is  a  foundation  for  the  life  of  to-morrow.  We  may 
have  to  create  an  interest  in  the  things  the  child  needs, 
and  all  this  involves  a  careful  study  of  the  child  and 
the  available  material. 

d)  Again  as  the  child  passes  through  the  various 
stages  from  infancy  to  adult  life  his  interests  widen 
and  his  needs  become  more  complex.  The  curriculum 
then  must  be  comprehensive  to  touch  him  on  all  sides, 
must  meet  his  widening  horizon,  must  be  rich  in 
content  to  supply  fully  every  need,  and  not  confined  to 
any  one  aspect  of  divine  revelation,  else  a  life  may 
become  one-sided  or  narrow. 

c)  And  lastly  the  course  of  study  should  be  pro- 
gressive and  inter-related.  Man  is  a  unit,  an  organism 
not  a  mechanism,  and  that  which  touches  a  part  touches 
the  whole.  Only  that  which  is  assimilated  builds  up, 
and  the  assimilation  of  the  new  is  the  function  of  the 
old.  The  entirely  new  is  unassimilible,  and  what  is  pre- 
sented from  week  to  week  must  be  progressively  pre- 
sented to  be  readily  assimilated.  All  the  elements  of 
the  course,  geography,  biography,  history,  poetry, 
prophecy,  etc.,  must  be  closely  related  to  vital  truth, 
giving    a    support,   a    setting   to    truth.     One   of   the 


7^  C!)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unlinp  ;^cI)Oo1js 

greatest  defects  of  our  present  systems  is  the  lack  of 
this  progression  and  inter-relation.  We  teach  frag- 
ments with  scarcely  an  attempt  to  tie  them  together. 
This  results  in  loss  to  both  the  teacher's  energy  and 
scholar's  time. 

J.  With  these  desired  ends  of  religious  training  and  these 
govertiiftg  principles  of  the  subject-matter  clearly  in 
in'eia,  what  shall  we  select  as  suitable  material  of 
instruction  for  the  child  up  to  ij  years  of  age  ? 

a)  Kindergarten  period  —  4  to  6  years  of  of  age. 

Interests  and  powers  center  about  Nature  and  the 
observation  of  Nature  and  about  self  and  its  wants. 
Now  the  child  may  be  easily  led  to  the  great  Source. 
Through  Nature  he  may  get  a  revelation  of  God 
the  Creator  and  Provider,  leading  him  to  connect  all 
things  with  God. 

ALL    NATURE    REVEALING    GOd's 

Power  is  the  basis  for  Reverence 

Wisdom  is  "        "       "     Trust 

Love  is        "        **       '*     Love  and  Thankfulness 

Rule  is        "       "       "     Unity  and  Obedience. 

b)  Primary  period  —  6  to  9  years  of  age. 

Now  the  child  is  able  to  appreciate  more  of  the 
Father-side  of  God.  He  should  be  led  to  see  God  in 
a  nearer  relation  to  himself,  as  God  the  Father,  we 
His  children.  What  God  does  for  us,  what  He  would 
have  us  do  for  Him. 


^iilirc£!£i  bp  prof.  (Stovst  W,  l^taat  )) 

ist  year.  God  the  loving  Father  providing  for  His 
children's  needs. 

Topics: — Care,  Help,  Protection,  A  Home,  A  Guide 
Book,  A  Friend,  and  Helper. 

2nd  year.  God  the  loving  Father  providing  wise 
laws  for  His  children. 

Topics : — Laws  relating  to  self — To  Body,  to  Mind, 
to  Soul. 

Laws  relating  to  others — Kindness  in  the  home, 
Obedience  in  the  home.  Helpfulness,  truthful- 
ness, unselfishness,  kindness  to  all. 

Laws  relating  to  God  —  Trust,  obedience,  love  for 
His  house,  love  for  His  day,  honoring  His  name, 
praying  for  His  help. 

3rd  year.  God  the  loving  Father  providing  a  helper 
and  friend. 

One  year's  work  on  the  life  of  Jesus  the  Friend 
and  Helper. 

c)   Boyhood  period — Junior  grade. 

Interest  becomes  strong  in  history  and  in  persons  and 
their  deeds.  Stories  with  a  moral  content  and  ones 
true  to  life  are  attractive.  There  is  an  increased 
interest  in  cause  and  effect.  It  is  a  period  of  impul- 
siveness. We  should  show  God  as  the  law-giver  and 
ruler,  and  the  relation  of  law  to  life. 

JUNIOR  DEPARTMENT. 

GENERAL     OUTLINE     OF     COURSES. 

General  subject  for  the  four  years:  God  the  World- 
Ruler. 


Sec. 

I. 

Sec. 

2. 

Sec. 

3- 

Sec. 

4- 

Sec. 

5- 

Sec. 

6. 

78  d)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^untiap  ^djoold 

(/)   Grade  A,  9  to  10  years. 

Subject:    God    the    World-Ruler  —  ruling    and 
blessing  a  people. 

The  story  of  ancient  Israel. 
The  story  of  the  Judges. 
The  story  of  the  great  Kingdoms. 
The  story  of  the  smaller  Kingdoms. 
The  story  of  the  Exile. 
The  story  of  the  Return  and  new  Settle- 
ment. 
The  Old  Testament  books  are  to  be  studied  as 
follows:  With  Sec.  i,  the  Hexateuch;  with  Sec. 
2,  Judges  and  Ruth;  with  Sees.  3  and  4,  Samuel, 
Kings,   Chronicles;    with  Sees.   5  and  6,  Ezra, 
Nehemiah,    Esther.     In    separate    groups,    but 
related   to  the  times:  the  books  of  song  anil 
wisdom  —  Job,    Psalms,   Proverbs,  Ecclesiates, 
Song    of    Solomon;    the    books    of    the    great 
teachers  —  Major  Prophets,  Minor  Prophets. 
Memory  work:  The  Ten  Commandments  in  full; 
Pss.  I  and  19.      Other  work  as  the  school  may 
elect. 
b)  Grade  B,  10  to  11  years. 

Subject :  God  the  World-Ruler  —  ruling  and  bless- 
ing the  nations. 
Sec.  I.   The  story  of  Jesus,  the  nations'  greatert 
Teacher  and  Helper,    (i)  Jesus' Boyhood.    (2) 
Jesus   the  Teacher.      (3)   Jesus  the  Worker. 
(4)  Jesus  the  King. 
The  New  Testament  books  studied  with  the  above ; 

the  four  Gospels. 
Memory  work :  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 


c)  Grade  C,  11  to  12  years. 

Subject :  God  the  World-Ruler  —  ruling  and  bless- 
ing the  nations  (continued). 
Sec.  2.   The  story  of  the  first  great  teachers 
and  missionaries,     (i)  Working  in  Jerusalem. 
(2)    Working   in    Samaria.      (3)    Working    in 
Syria.    (4)  Working  in  Asia  Minor.    (5)  Work- 
ing in  Europe. 
The  New  Testament  books  studied  with  the  above : 
the   book    of    Acts,    the    epistles    of    S.    Paul, 
S.  James,   S.  Peter,   S.  John,  and  S.  Jude,  and 
the  book  of  Revelation. 
Memory  work:   i  Corinthians,  chap.  13,  and  other 
work  as  the  school  may  elect. 

d)  Grade  D,  12  to  13  years. 

Subject:  God  the  World-Ruler  —  ruling  and  bless- 
ing the  world. 
Sec.  I.    The   story   of  the   great  teachers  and 

missionaries  to  the  time  of  the  Reformation. 
Sec.    2.    The  story  of  the  great  teachers   and 
missionaries  of  modern  times. 
Memory  work:   Songs   of  the   Church,  and  such 
other  matter  as  the  school  may  elect. 


Cl^e  ^unDa^  ^cl^ool  Commijijsjion,  and 
tl)e  (Education  of  ti^e  Ceacl^er 


Rev.  Wm.  Walter  Smith,  M.A.,  M.D. 

Secretary  of  the  Sunday  School  Commission;  Diocese  of  New  York 

I  HE  horizon  of  the  Sunday  School  Com- 
mission has  been  greatly  enlarged 
during  the  past  year,  regarding  the 
defects  and  needs  of  the  schools  and 
their  teachers.  The  Commission  has 
been  in  intimate  touch  with  almost 
every  State  in  the  Union.  Letters  and  appeals  pour 
in  each  week  at  the  Secretary's  office,  asking  for  sug- 
gestions and  guidance  in  matters  pertaining  to  lessons 
or  curriculum  or  organization.  The  interest  mani- 
fested is  most  keen,  and  the  desire  for  sympathetic 
assistance  is  far-reaching  and  widespread.  There  is 
a  universal  recognition  that  the  schools  of  the  Church 
are  not  doing  the  best  they  can  and  should  do  for  the 
religious  education  of  the  children  committed  to  their 

80 


auurcds  ip  Ecb.  ^m.  Salter  ^xaitl),  ift.a.,  pi.J),        Si 

care;  and  a  most  hopeful  eagerness,  accompanying 
this  recognition  of  failure,  to  seize  every  opportunity 
for  practical  advance. 

The  deep  importance  of  proper  religious  education 
can  not  be  overestimated.  Man  has  five  elements  in 
his  educational  nature;  the  scientific,  the  literary,  the 
aesthetic,  the  institutional,  and  the  religious,  five  spirit- 
ual inheritances,  to  which  he  is  justly  entitled.*  A 
complete  education  must  embrace  a  broadening  of 
horizon  in  each  one  of  these  elements.  The  more  the 
State,  by  common  consent,  omits  the  religious  element 
in  education,  the  more  patent  become  the  numerous 
defects  of  our  present  unorganized  and  haphazard 
Sunday-school  system.  The  testimony,  coming  to  the 
Commission,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  indicates  that 
the  same  difficulties  exist  everywhere,  and  are  not,  as 
many  suppose,  confined  to  our  own  Diocese  or  Church. 
The  same  story  is  told  by  writers  from  Canada,  Eng- 
land, and  New  Zealand,  as  well  as  from  every  diocese 
and  missionary  jurisdiction  in  the  American  Episco- 
pate. So  intense  has  been  the  dissatisfaction  that,  in 
a  few  cases,  rectors  have  considered  the  Sunday-school 
problem  entirely  beyond  solution,  and  the  Sunday- 
school  itself  utterly  beyond  reform;  with  the  unhappy 
result  that  they  have  closed  the  schools,  which,  poor 
though  they  were,  furnished  the  only  religious  educa- 
tion most  children  have  been  permitted  to  obtain. 

But  this  very  recognition  of  insufficiency  has  borne 
fruit.  Commissions  and  Institutes  for  the  elevation 
and  improvement — the  betterment  is  a  good  term  for 
it — of    Sunday-schools    have  arisen,  like   cloudbursts 

*  The  Meaning  of  Education,  Chapter  I. 


82  CI)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unljap  §>cl()ool£i 

in  many  of  the  dioceses.  In  addition  to  our  New  York 
Commission,  there  are  similar  organizations  now  in 
Long  Island,  Missouri,  Washington,  D.  C,  Philadel- 
phia, Connecticut,  Detroit,  Minnesota,  Kentucky, 
Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Ohio,  Kansas,  Central 
New  York,  New  Hampshire,  Western  New  York,  and 
California.  These  Commissions,  etc.,  are  formed  to 
seek  out  and  use  the  most  advanced  and  practical 
methods  for  religious  education,  and  by  cooperation 
with  each  other,  to  eventually  bring  the  standard  of 
the  Sunday-school  up  to  that  of  the  secular  systems, 
which  have  made  such  marked  -progress  in  recent 
years. 

This  movement  has  gone  outside  of  the  Church, 
moreover,  and  is  leavening  all  bodies  of  Christians,  in 
a  manner  that  is  in  itself  a  factor  by  no  means  insig- 
nificant in  the  line  of  Christian  unity  and  fellowship. 
The  Sunday-school  Associations,  embracing  various 
Christian  bodies  in  Pennsylvania,  Washington  State, 
Iowa,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Canada,  have  been 
in  communication  with  our  Commission,  and  have  com- 
mended the  work  we  have  done  and  the  stand  in 
education  we  take,  adapting  the  results  we  have 
reached  to  proper  uses  in  their  own  schools.  Thus 
the  Church  is  again,  as  ever,  the  leader  in  Christian 
work. 

Once  more,  not  only  have  commissions,  associations, 
and  teachers  singly  recognized  the  importance  of  the 
work  the  Commission  is  trying  to  do,  but  individual 
Bishops,  Deans  of  Cathedrals,  Principals  of  Schools 
and  Colleges  have  written  to  the  office,  asking  for  and 


autivcsc  hf  Eci).  ^m.  Salter  ^mitl),  i^.^t.,  JH.D.        83 

adopting  in  their  respective  fields  the  Reading  Courses, 
etc.,  put  forth  by  the  Commission,  and  offering  sug- 
gestions for  future  enterprises. 

Glancing  with  a  broad  vision  over  this  large  and 
varied  field,  there  appear  to  be  three  chief  defects  in 
the  modern  Sunday-school,  defects  which  the  Com- 
mission is  especially  setting  about  to  correct,  if  pos- 
sible, improving  at  least  the  general  condition  of  the 
schools.  These  defects  are  (a)  lack  of  grading  and 
proper  lesson  system,  (d)  lack  of  thorough  order  and 
discipline,  (cj  lack  of  sufficient  teachers  qualified  in 
the  principles  of  teaching  and  in  the  subject-matter  to 
be  taught.  Let  us  consider  these  three  defects  in 
order  and  their  possible  remedies. 

The  Commission  seeks  in  time  to  better  the  grading 
and  lesson  systems,  first  by  putting  forth  tentative 
curricula,  to  be  examined  and  experimented  with  by 
the  Sunday-schools,  until  finally  one  or  several,  suited 
to  the  varying  conditions  of  city  schools,  and  the  still 
more  diverse  country  and  village  schools,  may  be 
finally  agreed  upon  through  practical  test;  and  prop- 
erly graded  lesson  systems  published,  based  on  these 
curricula.  Several  suggested  schemes  are  already 
before  the  Commission.  The  Commission  is  also  in 
conference  with  the  leading  educators  in  Columbia 
University  and  the  foremost  men  in  pedagogical 
methods  in  the  country  at  large.  Decisive  results  will, 
without  doubt,  be  very  speedily  announced.  Sugges- 
tions as  to  order  of  studies,  and  samples  of  tested 
curricula  of  any  Sunday-school,  are  most  gladly  wel- 
comed and  earnestly  desired, 


84  CI)e  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unliap  ^cI)ool6 

The  second  difficulty,  that  of  order  and  discipline, 
can  have  no  genuine  excuse  for  longer  existence.  At 
its  office,  29  Lafaj/ette  Place,  New  York,  the  Com- 
mission has  on  permanent  exhibition  not  only  every 
present  day  device  relating  to  maps,  charts,  lesson 
helps  and  systems,  books,  etc.,  but  especially  the  most 
approved  and  thoroughly  tested  systems  of  "  the  busi- 
ness management  of  the  school,"  such  as  proper  and 
time-saving  class  books,  certificates,  rules,  monthly 
reports,  examination  forms,  registers,  diplomas,  etc., 
all  in  short  that  goes  to  make  up  a  well  equipped,  well 
organized  Sunday-school,  equally -applicable  to  both 
large  and  small  Churches. 

The  third  dilemma,  that  of  the  untrained  teachers, 
is  not  only  more  difficult  of  solution,  but,  while  the 
most  important  problem  of  the  school,  the  fundamental 
pivot  on  which  it  revolves,  it  must,  like  all  educational 
reforms,  be  but  gradually  introduced.  The  work  of 
training  Sunday-school  teachers  in  the  general  art  of 
religious  instruction,  in  the  application  of  child-study 
and  psychologic  principles  to  the  Sunday-school  lesson, 
is  the  largest  and  most  far-reaching  in  scope  and 
thoroughness  of  any  similar  attempt  ever  made. 
During  the  fall  and  winter  of  1900-1901,  over  a  dozen 
large  classes  were  formed  in  various  parishes  in  New 
York  City,  such  as  St.  Michael's,  St.  James,  St. 
Andrew's,  St.  George's,  Holy  Communion,  Holy 
Trinity  (88th  Street),  Holy  Trinity  (Harlem),  and 
Church  Mission  House.  The  most  competent  secular 
educators  from  Columbia  University  were  secured  to 
deal  with  such  miportant  and  fundamental  topics  as 


aiUrccifi  Ijp  Ecto.  Wm,  Walttv  ^mitl),  ^H.^.,  JH.D.        85 

"The  Art  of  Teaching,"  "The  Psychologic  Founda- 
tions of  Religious  Education,"  "The  Art  of  Ques- 
tioning," "The  Art  of  Story-telling,"  "The  Art  of 
Securing  Attention  by  finding  and  making  a  Point." 
In  all,  a  total  of  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  teachers 
were  under  training,  and  many  superintendents,  as  well 
as  the  teachers  themselves,  have  expressed  to  members 
of  the  Commission  the  satisfaction  at  the  practical 
aid  and  help  imparted.  But  this  is  only  the  beginning. 
There  is  urgent  need  for  a  yet  more  enlarged  work. 
It  is  ripe  time  for  the  founding  of  a  Teachers'  Normal 
Institute,  or  School  for  Religious  Education,  at  the 
Diocesan  House,  offering  a  thorough  course  of  relig- 
ious and  pedagogical  instruction  under  a  qualified 
corps  of  skilled  educators,  issuing  a  diploma  or  certi- 
ficate at  graduation,  which  would  count  of  recognized 
value  in  any  school  or  diocese.  There  is  a  demand 
for  just  such  an  institute.  It  has  already  been  under 
profound  consideration  by  educational  institutions 
outside  of  the  Church.  Letters  have  come  to  the 
Commission's  office  from  most  varied  sections  of  the 
country,  asking  whether  there  were  not  in  New  York 
or  elsewhere  just  such  a  school  for  training  Christian 
Lay  Workers.  The  Commission  is  the  organization 
best  qualified  to  undertake  this  duty,  the  only  author- 
ized educational  body  for  religious  lay-training  in  the 
diocese.  It  is  increasing  in  power  and  influence 
throughout  the  nation.  Since  September  last  over 
7,200  pieces  of  mail  have  gone  out  from  the  Secre- 
tary's office  alone,  spreading  interest  and  knowledge 
of  our  work, 


86  Clje  Crppt  Conference  on  §»untjap  ^cljools 

The  temper  of  individual  parislies  has  been  tested. 
Since  January,  the  Secretary  has  visited  and  ad- 
dressed the  teachers  of  St.  Agnes,  All  Angels,  St. 
Mary's  (Mott  Haven),  St.  Mary's  (Manhattanville), 
St.  James,  St.  Bartholomew's  Parish  House,  St. 
Michael's,  St.  Andrew's,  Beloved  Disciple,  St.  Luke's 
Church,  St.  Luke's  Chapel,  St.  Augustine's,  St.  Am- 
brose, St.  Clement's,  All  Souls,  Intercession,  St.  John's 
Chapel,  Grace-Emanuel,  Holy  Trinity  (88th  Street), 
Holy  Trinity  (Harlem),  the  Good  Shepherd,  New- 
burgh,  and  many  more.  Other  members  of  the  Com- 
mission have  visited  Churches  in  New  York  City, 
Staten  Island,  Brooklyn,  Yonkers,  etc.  All  this  is 
bearing  fruit.  The  largest  and  best  parishes  in  the 
diocese  have  tested  the  work  of  the  Commission,  and 
are  ready  to  uphold  it,  both  financially  and  through 
their  teachers. 

And  such  an  Institute,  if  we  launch  it,  will  require 
most  substantial  support,  in  money  and  clientele, 
until  it  becomes  practically  self-supporting,  either 
through  endowment  or  tuition  fees,  or  both.  The 
benefit  that  will  accrue  to  the  Church  will  amply  reim- 
burse for  any  possible  outlay  of  either  effort  or  money. 
The  importance  of  thorough  preparation  of  our  teach- 
ers, both  in  a  knowledge  of  the  child  they  are  to  teach 
(a  knowledge  of  his  nature,  his  development,  the  most 
successful  ways  of  reaching  him),  and  in  a  knowledge 
of  proper  methods  of  teaching  and  imparting  knowl- 
edge, holding  attention,  etc.,  are  fundamental  and  im- 
portant. They  are  .so  patent  in  secular  education,  that 
to-day  the  most  ignorant  parent  seeks  the  best  teacher 


auUresB  I)P  Kci).  ^m.  5^alter  ^mitf),  ilt.a.,  ^H.C).        87 

for  the  child  in  day  school,  and  the  citizens  of  the 
commonwealth  devote  millions  of  dollars  to  the  edu- 
cation and  training  of  teachers.  In  the  Church,  we 
pass  this  by,  and  imagine  that  just  because  we  are 
dealing  with  religious  instruction  in  the  Sunday-school, 
the  instruction  in  God's  Holy  Word  and  in  Christian 
living,  we  can  ignore  the  mental  and  practical 
laws  which  underlie  the  impartation  of  all  knowledge 
and  instruction  of  whatever  kind,  and  expect  God  by 
some  miracle  to  make  up  for  our  ignorance  and  lack  of 
training  and  education.  All  this  comes  before  and 
outside  of  the  domain  of  the  subject-matter  to  be 
taught.  It  applies  to  any  subject-matter.  After  we 
learn  how  to  teach,  then  the  acquirement  of  subject- 
matter  to  be  taught  is  rendered  not  alone  less  difficult, 
but  of  some  real  advantage  to  us  and  the  child  we 
teach. 

Why,  then,  if  we  acknowledge  the  crucial  import- 
ance of  a  proper  education  in  religious  matters  for  our 
children,  and  the  woeful  insufficiency  of  our  teachers, 
who  at  present  struggle  to  cope  with  this  educational 
problem,  should  we  not  bestir  ourselves  and  practically 
reform  our  religious  schools,  just  as  a  few  years  ago 
Horace  Mann  undertook  the  uplifting  and  elevation 
of  the  common  schools  of  this  fair  land?  It  can  be 
done  with  proper  support,  and  a  few  enthusiastic  and 
clear-visioned  leaders.  It  should  be  done  by  the 
Church.  It  should  be  first  undertaken  by  the  Church 
in  the  great  diocese  of  New  York,  and  in  New  York 
City,  this  mighty  centre  of  influence  and  power.  It  has 
a  body  standing  ready  to  undertake  it,  and  to  assume 


88  CI)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^untjaj)  ^c!)ooId 

the  responsibility  of  its  foundation — the  Sunday-school 
Commission,  the  official  organization  appointed  by  the 
Bishop,  to  consider  and  deal  with  the  Sunday-school 
problem.  It  should  receive  the  heartiest  cooperation 
from  every  parish  in  the  diocese  and  surrounding 
region,  city  and  country  alike,  all  of  which  will  be 
benefited  by  the  improvement  of  the  schools  and  the 
teaching  force  of  the  Church.  Above  all,  now  is  the 
time  to  do  it,  when  the  attention  of  the  Church  is 
aroused,  and  her  interest  excited. 


Clje  Ceaci^er  auD  ti^e  ^tanDatD  of 


Malcolm  McLean,  M.D. 

Superintendent  of  St.  Andrew's  Sunday  school,  New  York. 

DESIRE  to  preface  my  remarks  on 
this  very  important  subject,  by  stat- 
ing that  I  distinctly  recognize  my 
inability  to  deal  with  it  in  the  manner 
it  deserves,  as  I  have  neither  the 
inspiration  of  the  theologian's  erudition,  nor  the  skill 
which  comes  of  a  practical  and  theoretical  knowledge 
of  pedagogy. 

Sometimes  it  happens  that,  when  a  speaker  knows 
very  little  about  his  subject,  he  falls  into  the  fatal 
error, of  attempting  to  compensate  matters  by  multi- 
plying his  words,  hoping,  indeed,  by  lengthening  his 
discourse,  to  give  it  point  and  character  of  wisdom. 

How  sadly  this  method  fails  we  all  know  too  well. 
And  so  I  will  endeavor,  by  avoiding  such  mistake,  to 

89 


90  CI)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^antiap  ^cI)ool£t 

secure  your  patient  and  indulgent  attention,  while  I 
briefly  present  a  few  practical  ideas  associated  with 
the  propositions  offered  in  the  theses  which  are  sub- 
mitted for  discussion. 

The  Sunday-school  is,  or  ought  to  be,  no  longer  a 
mere  sentimental  gathering  together  of  young  people 
for  one  hour  a  week,  with  only  a  misty  idea  that  inci- 
dentally some  instruction  in  matters  appertaining  to 
religion  must,  somehow,  be  crowded  in.  It  must  not 
be  a  sort  of  day  nursery  to  which  parents,  fatigued 
with  the  exhausting  duties  of  "  clubs,"  and,  dare  I  say? 
other  questionable  occupations  of  the  week,  may  send 
their  little  ones  to  give  them — the  parents — oppor- 
tunity for  much  needed  rest. 

It  should  not  be  a  meeting  place  for  young  people 
who  find  the  Sunday-school  a  convenient  and  quite 
respectable  resort,  when  other  and  more  alluring  en- 
gagements can  not  be  made  on  the  Lord's  Day. 

No,  the  Sunday-school  has  now,  if  it  never  had 
before,  a  high  and  important  mission.  It  must  stand 
as  the  helpmeet  of  the  Church,  to  contribute,  so  far 
as  possible,  to  a  healthy  religious  sentiment  in  the 
education  of  the  young,  who  are  now,  to  an  unprece- 
dented degree,  exposed  to  the  all-pervading  secular, 
material  notions  of  the  age,  in  the  home,  in  the  school, 
in  the  streets,  and,  sadly  be  it  said,  too  often  in  that 
house  itself  which  should  be  a  House  of  Worship. 

The  Sunday-school  must  to  some  extent  at  least 
attempt  to  fill  in  that  sad  and  deplorable  gap  in  the 
proper  function  of  the  home  caused  by  the  practical 
abandonment  of  all  family  worship.     It  must  pfteri 


^tjt!rc£(6  i»p  iRalcoIm  iKcLcan,  iH.£). 


bring  to  the  child's  knowledge,  for  the  first  time,  the 
contents,  the  teachings,  the  inspirations  of  that  Book 
of  Books.  It  must  do  much  in  making  clear  the  ap- 
plication of  the  Ten  Commandments  to  the  every-day 
life  of  the  child,  neutralizing  that  tide  of  worldly  vice 
which  bears  down  upon  every  footstep  from  youth  to 
age.  It  must  guide  the  young  mind  into  habits  of 
reverence  and  unselfish  consideration  of  duty  to  God 
and  to  neighbor;  and  it  must  attempt  to  do  all  this, 
and  more,  in  about  one  hour  in  each  of  some  thirty 
odd  weeks  in  each  year. 

A  moment's  consideration,  then,  of  this  stupendous 
duty  will  convince  one  that  means  and  methods  must 
be  so  well  contrived  and  coordinated  that  every  minute 
of  opportunity  may  be  put  to  the  best  possible  use  and 
advantage. 

The  all  important  factor  then,  in  this  great  work, 
must  be  he  or  she  who  comes  most  directly  in  contact 
with  the  mind  and  soul  of  the  pupil — namely,  the 
teacher. 

The  pastor  of  the  flock  may  be  remarkable  for  god- 
liness and  learning;  he  may  be  ever  so  devoted  to  the 
welfare  of  his  people,  young  and  old;  he  maybe  so 
fortunate  as  to  select  to  preside  over  his  school  that 
I'ara  avis,  a  good,  competent  Superintendent,  who  is 
appreciative  of  the  important  office  he  is  called  upon 
to  fill ;  but  if  by  any  means  a  corps  of  teachers  is  put 
in  direct  charge  of  the  classes — teachers  who  are  not 
fitted  for  the  work  we  have  already  hinted  at,  as  being 
the  true  aim  and  function  of  the  school — then  the 
standard  of  that  school  will  be  low;  its  work  will  be 


92  d)e  Crppt  Conference  on  ^tmHap  ^cI)ool£{ 

discouraging  and  misleading;  nay,  it  will  be  often 
mischievous.  Why  is  it  that  there  are  good  well- 
thinking  men  to-day  in  our  Church  who  are  still  in 
doubt  as  to  the  usefulness  of  any  Sunday-school  at 
all?  Is  it  not  because  of  the  defective  work  which 
has  confronted  them  here  or  there,  showing  a  barren 
fig-tree  as  the  fruit-offering  to  the  Lord  as  He  passes 
by? 

I  will  not  pretend  to  define  or  depict  the  traits  and 
qualities  which  must  be  found  in  the  successful  and 
desirable  teacher;  but  let  me  throw  out  a  few  sugges- 
tions which  may  stand  as  texts,  from  which  valuable 
sermons  may  be  taught  us  by  those  whom  we  see  about 
us,  so  well  qualified  for  that  duty. 

Teachers  should  be  such  active  Christians  that  their 
very  lives  may  be  an  object  lesson  to  those  who  shall 
come  under  their  charge.  They  should  be,  not  only 
members  of  the  church,  but  living  members;  members 
who  are  ready  and  willing  to  perform  the  functions 
belonging  to  members  of  Christ's  body.  But  you  may 
ask  is  any  one  so  deluded  as  to  suppose  that  he  can 
live  one  life  and  teach  another,  and  yet  by  such  means 
deceive  a  scholar  and  lead  him  or  her  in  paths  of 
righteousness?  Can  such  a  teacher  come  to  the  class 
all  unprepared  in  lessons,  manner  and  disposition,  and 
expect  to  impress  the  child  with  the  importance  of 
exactness  in  all  these  matters?  Can  the  teacher  come 
late  or  irregularly  on  the  slightest  pretext  of  excuse, 
and  yet  believe  that  it  is  all  unobserved  by  the  passive 
minds  before  him?  It  would  seem  so.  Such  teachers 
have  been  known  even  in  schools  in  this  great  diocese. 


Oh,  yes!  the  teacher  must  strive  in  every  way  to 
exemplify  in  his  own  life  the  character  he  would  de- 
velop in  his  scholar. 

To  impart  instruction,  he  must  himself  be  instructed ; 
to  give  of  knowledge,  he  must  possess  knowledge,  and 
to  know,  he  must  learn. 

Teachers  should  love  their  work;  should  feel  that 
they  are,  under  God,  permitted  to  be  artificers,  creators, 
in  the  great  world  of  thought  and  character-develop- 
ment. They  must  not  feel  content  with  doing  a  task 
according  to  duty  only;  they  must  feel  the  privilege 
it  is  to  be  the  builders  who  are  constructing  a  portion 
of  the  economy  of  the  human  cosmos. 

Love  of  the  work  will  stimulate  the  mental  resources, 
and  abundant  means  will  be  at  hand  to  furnish  whole- 
some illustration  of  the  subject  which  is  desired  to  be 
taught. 

It  is  this  love,  and  aptness  for  teaching  which  comes 
of  such  love,  which  will  make  successful  teachers  of 
those  who  may  never  have  had  the  opportunity  for 
classical  or  "higher"  education. 

Every  pastor  knows  some  teacher  who  has  done 
magnificent  work  although  he  or  she  may  be  sadly  in 
want  of  educational  equipment,  as  it  is  usually  defined. 
But  if  such  teacher  be  closely  observed  and  appre- 
ciated, it  will  be  clearly  apparent  that  there  is  no 
half-hearted,  slipshod  method  pursued,  but  every 
energy  is  put  forth  to  touch  the  heart  and  soul  of  the 
pupil  by  such  simple  means  that  the  very  honesty  of 
the  teacher  is  felt  by  the  child. 


94  ^It  ^rppt  Confcrciue  on  ^untiap  ^cljools 

Such  can  be  a  power  for  good  in  any  Sunday- 
school.  They  possess  the  natural  gifts  of  a  teacher, 
and  using  them  honestly  they  may  accomplish  much. 

But  no  one,  I  think,  will  feel  that  such  teachers  will 
be  less  valuable  or  competent  if  possessed  of  wider 
knowledge  in  general,  with  capacities  to  look  at 
subjects  from  more  varied  and  extended  points  of 
view. 

Certain  it  is  that,  the  more  we  really  know  of  a 
subject  (not  that  we  simply  think  we  know),  the  better 
we  shall  be  able  to  speak  of  it  with  force  and  preci- 
sion. Such  a  proposition  it  seems  to  me  needs  no 
argument  for  demonstration  or  proof. 

But  a  brilliant  technical  education  alone  will  not 
suffice.  It  must  be  the  added  resource  to  a  character 
well  fitted  to  impart  of  the  knowledge  thus  attained. 
A  technical  expert  may  be  so  crowded  with  theories 
and  dogmas  that  he  hasn't  any  energy  left  for  the 
application  of  good  tactful  "  common-sense,"  that  rare 
manifestation  of  wisdom. 

A  man  may  accumulate  great  riches,  but  if  he  be 
incapable  of  so  applying  the  use  of  such  riches  as  to 
secure  satisfactory  comforts  and  pleasures  for  himself 
and  others,  he  is  of  all  men  most  poor. 

The  well-rounded,  successful  teacher  will  not  fail  to 
recognize  the  scholar  as  an  integral  part  of  the  class, 
and  he  will  so  adapt  his  teaching  as  to  make  it  perme- 
ate if  possible  the  whole  class.  Recognizing  the  class 
as  a  whole  as  being  an  integral  part  of  a  great  system 
known  as  the  Sunday-school,  he  will  see  that  the  con- 
duct of  the  class  is  such  that  its  place  and  function  in 


auureisis  bp  iltalcolm  iltlcan,  iH.2!).  95 

the  school  be  not  disturbed  or  distorted.  This  I  fear 
is  too  often  overlooked. 

What  Superintendent,  what  Pastor,  has  not  been 
again  and  again  annoyed  and  discouraged  by  the  lack 
of  discipline  coming  of  a  wrong  understanding  of  the 
relation  of  the  class  to  the  school? 

An  otherwise  excellent  teacher  has,  for  instance, 
the  perfect  love  and  loyalty  of  the  scholars;  they 
attend  regularly,  they  learn  their  lessons  well,  and  are 
exemplary  in  all  their  conduct,  it  may  be.  But  the 
teacher  is  sometimes  necessarily  absent.  What  is  the 
result?  An  empty  class  form  until  that  teacher  returns 
to  duty.  The  interests  of  the  school  at  large  are 
entirely  ignored,  the  loyalty  and  fealty  of  the  class 
goes  no  farther  than  to  the  teacher.  I  am  sorry  to  be 
compelled  to  think  that  this  is  too'often  considered  a 
matter  for  congratulation — it  does  so  tickle  that  little 
meaner  part  within  us — personal  pride  and  selfishness. 

Not  only  should  the  teacher  preserve  the  proper 
attitude  of  the  class  to  the  Sunday-school,  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  school  is  but  the  hand- 
maiden of  the  Church,  that  it  is  to  teach  those  things 
which  are  wholesome  and  true,  and  to  teach  them  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  very  natural  sequence  will  be 
to  lead  the  pupil  to  take  voluntary  steps  into  that 
relation  with  the  Church  Militant  which  shall  prove 
that  they  are  grounded  in  the  "Faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints." 

And  just  here  I  would  earnestly  plead  for  the  most 
careful  efforts  of  all — clergy,  teachers,  parents,  all — 
to   promote    confidence   and   interest   in   the  Sunday- 


9<J  C|)c  ^rppt  t^onfercnce  on  ^unljap  §)rl)0old 

school,  which  will  secure  the  most  prolonged  curricu- 
lum for  the  growing  boys  and  girls.  What  a  sad  fact 
it  is  that  so  few  attend  our  Sunday-schools  at  that  age 
when  character  is  developing  from  an  infantile  state 
into  that  of  something  like  maturity! 

I  fear  that  in  our  Church  particularly  we  are  making 
a  mistake  in  urging  our  young  children  to  assume  re- 
sponsibilities, through  the  Rite  of  Confirmation,  which 
they  are  not  yet  ready  to  appreciate.  I  will  not  pre- 
sume to  intrude  upon  ground  beyond  a  layman's  juris- 
diction; but  I  am  so  convinced  of  the  detrimental 
influence  in  our  Sunday-schools  of  the  annual  deple- 
tions through  such  cause,  that  I  believe  it  is  worthy 
of  serious  consideration. 

Teachers  should  be  most  carefully  selected  for  ap- 
pointment, and  the  superintendent  should  be  empow- 
ered to  accept  or  reject  a  candidate.  I  believe  it 
would  always  be  for  the  best  interests  of  school  and 
Church  to  have  all  names  of  proposed  teachers  sub- 
mitted to  the  careful  investigation  of  that  ofificer  who 
is  in  constant  touch  with  his  working  forces. 

It  matters  not  whether  one  believes  that  the  Rector 
himself  or  a  layman  should  be  the  superintendent  of 
the  school,  that  superintendent  should  be  responsible 
for  the  general  tone  and  standard  of  the  school, 
always  recognizing  that  he  is  also  responsible  to  the 
Church  for  the  loyal  attitude  of  the  school  towards  its 
Mother  Church. 

Thus  he  will  exercise  due  vigilance  in  the  selection 
of  those  persons  into  whose  hands  he  is  to  place  the 
developing  minds  and   souls  of   those    of  whom  our 


auurefiij!  ip  iHalcolm  jltcLcan,  pi*t>*  97 

Saviour  did  not  fail  to  say  "  of  such  are  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven." 

Such  teachers  are  coming  to  the  front  who  are 
availing  themselves  of  the  splendid  opportunities  for 
valuable  instruction  offered  by  the  Sunday-school 
Commission  of  this  great  diocese — teachers  who  are 
earnest  and  devoted,  and  of  whom  no  church  need  be 
ashamed. 

One  of  the  many  advantages  growing  out  of  this 
new  order  of  things  will  be  the  necessity  of  proper 
material  equipment  01  our  school  rooms.  Then,  with 
scholars,  teachers,  ofificers,  all  working  faithfully 
with  a  common  purpose  and  interest,  the  Sunday- 
school  shall  stand  as  it  ought  to  stand,  a  helpmeet 
true  and  sound,  bringing  into  closer  touch  within 
Christ's  fold  those  myriads  of  souls  who,  having  felt 
the  rays  of  religion's  holy  light,  will  grow  more  and 
more  into  the  everlasting  light  of  Heaven's  perpetual 
day! 


of  ti^e  Ci^urc]^ 


Rev.  Lester  Bradner,  Jr.,  Ph.D. 


Of  the  Sunday  School  Commission,  Diocese  of  New  York. 


^ 


HE  Forward  Movement  of  the  Church  is 
the  effort  to  bring  an  effective  knowl- 
edge of  the  Gospel  to  all  who  know  it 
not.  It  is  the  extension  of  the  Christ 
Life,  or,  in  other  words.  Missions. 
The  sfudy  of  Missions  is  a  new  proposition  as  yet. 
Very  few  of  adult  years  have  ever  engaged  in  it,  and 
comparatively  little  has  been  done  in  Sunday-schools. 
Those  familiar  with  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement 
will  recognize  this  efficient  institution  as  probably  the 
first  agency  to  advocate  and  prepare  plans  for  the 
actual  study  of  missionary  efforts.  Yet  even  this 
movement  does  not  aim  to  extend  its  work  below  the 
grade  of  college  students  or  missionary  societies  among 
young  people.  They  have  not  attempted  any  educa- 
tional efforts  among  children.  Indeed  they  are  re- 
strained by  the  fear  that  this  subject  would  not  be 

98 


granted  admission  among  the  courses  of  Sunday-school 
study. 

Yet,  as  will  doubtless  be  conceded  on  every  hand, 
Missions  are  the  issue  of  the  most  vital  impulses  of 
Christianity.  They  are  the  outcome  of  a  living  Gospel, 
and  stand  nearest  to  the  heart  of  Christ.  Take  away 
Missions  from  a  church,  a  parish,  or  a  Sunday-school, 
and  you  leave  a  mere  husk  of  Christian  feeling,  a  self- 
ish self-improvement  society,  anxious  only  for  its  own 
well-being.  That  heroism  of  sacrifice  which  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  most  strikingly  ex- 
hibited in  the  heroism  which  is  of  the  essence  of 
Missions.  The  Master  of  all,  and  the  man  who  carries 
His  message  into  the  world's  darkness  to-day,  are  one 
in  the  nobility  of  devotion.  Missions,  whether  at  home 
or  abroad,  are  the  Gospel  in  living,  present  action. 
They  are  the  most  vital  element  of  modern  faith. 

If  the  Sunday-school  is  to  undertake  the  Christian 
education  of  the  child  in  any  systematic  way,  why 
should  we  omit  from  its  course  of  study  the  best  and 
most  vital  evidence  of  Christian  life,  a  subject  which 
at  the  same  time  is  most  essentially  teachable?  Yet, 
on  asking  where  we  shall  find  Missions  taught  to-day, 
very  few  of  us  can  say,  "  In  our  Sunday-school."  Adult 
classes  are  beginning  to  be  organized  here  and  there. 
Some  branches  of  the  Junior  Auxiliary  pursue  a  more 
or  less  systematic  course  of  study  under  the  stimulus 
of  the  Junior  Auxiliary  Publishing  Company,  whose 
series  of  pamphlets  and  leaflets  form  part  of  our  Ex- 
hibit. But  only  semi-occasionally  do  we  discover  a 
Sunday-school  which  undertakes  a  regular  and  definite 


loo  STbc  Crppt  Conference  on  ^unUap  St^jooIb 

course  in  Missions.  Even  among  these  chosen  few 
the  subject  is  apt  to  be  covered  in  a  very  inadequate 
manner.  It  is  apt  to  be  limited  to  one  lesson  a  month, 
or  to  occasional  talks.  Consecutive  study,  Sunday  after 
Sunday,  of  a  well-planned  and  progressive  course  is 
something  we  can  scarcely  discover.  Certain  it  is 
that  there  are  no  published  courses  of  lessons  of  this 
kind  suitable  for  general  Sunday-school  use. 

Given  the  desire  for  any  sort  of  missionary  study, 
let  us  examine  the  methods  already  in  use  and  esti- 
mate them  on  the  basis  of  the  true  principles  of 
instruction.  If  Missions  are  to  be  taught,  we  should 
give  so  great  a  subject  the  honor  of  the  best  methods. 
Let  us  observe,  for  example,  the  simple  principle  that 
in  dealing  with  children  we  should  commence  with 
what  is  concrete  and  objective  rather  than  with  the 
abstract.  What  is  the  concrete  in  Missions?  Cer- 
tainly it  is  not  the  missionary  motive  alone,  even  when 
embodied  in  passages  from  Holy  Scripture.  Other 
things  being  equal,  the  address  of  a  missionary  from 
the  field  does  more  toward  awakening  an  interest  in 
Missions  than  the  well-meant  exhortation  of  the  rector 
of  the  parish.  Facts  and  pictures  carry  their  motive 
with  them.  It  is  of  small  value,  pedagogically,  to 
hammer  in  the  motive  for  Missions,  or  the  divine 
command  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature, 
unless  it  is  backed,  or  better,  preceded,  with  a  living 
picture  of  the  need  for  the  Gospel.  Yet,  in  many 
instances  our  missionary  teaching  goes  no  farther  than 
the  motive.  It  seeks  the  end  without  using  the 
means. 


^uaresiEi  bj)  Eeb.  Icstcr  ^raUncr,  STr.,  |)f).D.  loi 

A  slightly  better  method  appears  in  cases  where  the 
effort  is  made  to  study  the  history  of  Missions.  There 
is  something  concrete  in  history,  and  something  bio- 
graphical as  well.  But  the  purely  historical  treatment 
is  rather  for  the  adult  mind.  History  means  little  to 
most  children  under  fourteen.  So  far  as  Sunday- 
schools  are  concerned,  then,  we  must  restrict  the 
wise  use  of  the  study  of  the  history  of  Missions  to  the 
oldest  classes. 

Following  the  clue  of  the  biographical  principle,  we 
come  next  to  the  study  of  the  lives  of  missionaries,  the 
presentation  of  the  heroic  in  Missions.  This  method 
is  perhaps  the  most  generally  used  at  present.  The 
source-materials  for  it  in  the  way  of  text-books  and 
pamphlets  are  multiplying  rapidly,  although  no  con- 
secutive scheme  peculiarly  adapted  to  Sunday-school 
use  has  appeared.  Much  may  be  said  for  this  method 
in  point  of  teachableness.  It  is  more  concrete  than 
any  of  the  preceding,  and  presents  ideals  and  motives 
in  a  most  attractive  way.  Probably  nothing  could  be 
better  adapted  for  the  adolescent  period.  For  younger 
children,  however,  and  even  for  older  pupils  who  have 
had  no  previous  missionary  study,  it  lacks  in  nearness. 
It  is  rarely  time  to  write  the  biography  of  our  living 
missionaries.  The  present  heroes  of  our  Church,  the 
sight  of  whom  so  often  proves  an  inspiration,  do  not 
often  appear  in  the  pages  of  the  biographies.  The 
study  of  missionary  biographies  does  not  come 
quite  close  enough  to  give  the  child  a  sense  of  his 
own  partnership  in  the  Forward  Movement  of  the 
Church, 


I02  CI)e  Cvppt  Conference  on  g>untjnp  ^cljoold 

Where  does  the  child  connect  with  the  great  current 
of  missionary  effort?  Where,  /;/  practice,  not  theory, 
does  he  touch  the  organism?  It  is  when  the  boy 
gives  his  penny  for  the  offering,  or  his  toy  for  the 
box;  when  the  girl  puts  her  needlework  into  the  gar- 
ment, or  writes  a  letter  to  the  Secretary.  But  what 
next?  Who  takes  charge  of  the  penny,  and  where 
does  it  go  before  it  is  turned  into  human  energy? 
Who  is  to  play  with  the  toys,  or  to  wear  the  garments? 
Who  is  the  Secretary,  and  what  does  he  or  she  do? 
What  is  the  "  field  "  like,  and  who  manages  all  this 
machinery?  Who  are  our  missionaries,  and  how  do 
they  work?  This  is  the  most  concrete  thing  in  Mis- 
sions for  the  child  and  perhaps  for  adults.  Yet  it  is 
often  the  last  thing  taught.  What  becomes  of  the 
child's  own  Christian  effort,  and  what  are  its  objective 
fruits?  We  need  not  only  faith  but  knowledge  for 
our  missionary  training.  The  answers  to  these  ques- 
tions form  a  very  vital  sort  of  knowledge.  It  is  what 
we,  our  Church,  is  actually  doing,  through  men  and 
women  who  belong  to  us  and  whom  we  sometimes  see 
and  hear,  in  places  of  which  we  are  constantly  reading. 
As  the  modern  world  grows  smaller,  missionary  know- 
ledge must  grow  more  real  and  stir  to  greater  interest. 

Such  knowledge  as  this  is  perfectly  capable  of  being 
classified  and  digested  into  a  form  adapted  for  teach- 
ing even  in  Sunday-school.  Its  history,  geography, 
ethnology,  sociology,  and  theology  can  all  be  worked 
up  to  great  advantage,  even  in  their  simplest  terms. 
True,  the  sources  are  considerably  scattered.  At  pres- 
ent one  has  to  rely  largely  upon  the  files  of  The  Spirit 


StaUrcsEt  bp  Eeb.  ttattv  ^ratner,  "^v,,  Ij^^X).  103 

OF  Missions  and  the  annual  Reports  of  the  Board 
of  Missions.  Books  describing  the  field  in  a  general 
way  are  not  difficult  to  obtain,  but  a  clear  and  descrip- 
tive summary  of  our  particular  work  in  the  various 
fields  is  not  yet  forthcoming,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, such  as  China  perhaps.  The  Church  Missions 
Publishing  Company  have  made  creditable  contribu- 
tions in  this  direction  through  their  "  Round  Robins  " 
and  Leaflets.  Even  these  however  are  not  entirely 
adapted  in  form  and  pedagogical  arrangement  to 
Sunday-school  use  in  a  consecutive  course.  Maps, 
diagrams,  and  illustrations  remain  to  be  utilized  and 
supplied.  They  exist  plentifully  both  in  numbers  and 
variety,  but  have  not  been  collected  or  systematized. 
Add  to  this  the  gathering  by  a  Sunday-school  class  of 
the  objects  of  industry  and  art  peculiar  to  the  various 
fields,  or  the  making  of  a  scrap-book  to  accompany 
and  illustrate  further  the  lesson  series,  and  you  have 
the  most  attractive  objective  material  for  class  work. 
That  such  a  plan  as  this,  a  systematic  study  of  the 
present  workings  of  our  own  missionary  endeavors, 
can  be  successfully  carried  out  for  Sunday-school  use 
in  a  course  of  cojisecutive  lessons  with  a  maximum  of 
both  interest  and  acquired  knowledge,  has  been  proved 
in  the  experience  of  at  least  one  school.  It  is  hoped 
that  the  result  of  this  attempt  may  soon  be  made 
available  for  other  schools.  Such  a  course  need  not 
occupy  an  entire  year,  but  can  be  introduced  at  con- 
venient seasons  for  a  series  of  weeks.  It  more  nearly 
supplies  the  scientific  requirements  of  a  course  for 
children  than  the  other  plans  now  in  use,  all  of  which 


I04  C|)c  Crppt  Conference  on  ^uniap  ^cboolu 

may  wisely  be  introduced  as  succeeding  courses  for 
higher  grades.  It  contains  the  fundamental  knowl- 
edge of  actual  conditions,  needs  and  remedies,  which 
must  underlie  any  rational  attempt  to  raise  the  Church 
to  a  sense  of  her  responsibility.  Let  us  hope  that  the 
day  is  not  far  hence  when  this  treatment  of  one  great 
side  of  living  Christian  effort  shall  be  regarded  as  an 
indispensable  element  in  any  systematic  endeavor  to 
teach  the  Church's  little  ones. 


Now  ready.  Pp.  xx.=292  Price,  $1.25,  cloth 

CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE  LECTURES 

PRINCIPLES    OF 

RELIGIOUS   EDUCATION 

A  COURSE  OF  LECTURES  DELIVERED  UNDER 
THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
COMMISSION  OF  THE   DIOCESE  OF   NEW  YORK 

WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 

The  Right  Reverend  HENRY  C.  POTTER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Bishop  tf  New  York 

The  basic  principle  underlying  these  Lectures  is  that 
the  vSunday-school  is  a  school.  Its  problems  are  educa- 
tional problems.  Its  scope  of  instruction,  its  curriculum, 
its  text-books,  charts,  maps,  the  equipment  and  training 
of  its  teachers,  the  hours  and  times  and  places  of  its  work, 
— all  these  are  questions  to  be  considered  in  the  light  of 
educational  principles.  Hence  it  is  important  to  consider 
religious  education  first  from  the  standpoint  of  ac- 
knowledged leaders  in  the  cause  of  secular  education. 
This  Course  of  Lectures  covers  roughly  the  entire  field, 
each  lecture  presenting  its  own  point  of  view,  and  all 
converging  on  the  one  general  object. 


2  PRINCIPLES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 

CONTENTS 

I.  Religious  Instruction  and  its  Relation  to  Education.  By 
Nicholas  Murray  Butler,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  Philosophy 
and  Education  in  Columbia  University. 
II.  The  Educational  Work  of  the  Christian  Church.  By  the 
Right  Rev.  William  Croswell  Doane,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 
Bishop  of  Albany. 

III.  Religious  Instruction  in  England,  France,  Germany,  and  the 

United  States.     By  Charles  De  Garmo,  Ph.  D.,  Professor 
of  the  Science  and  Art  of  Education  in  Cornell  University. 

IV.  The  Content  of  Religious  Instruction.      By  the  Very  Rev- 

erend George  Hodges,  D.  D.,  Dean  of  the  Episcopal  Theo- 
logical School,  Cambridge,  Mass. 
V.  The  Sunday-School  and  its  Course  6f  Study.      By  the  Rev- 
erend Pascal  Harrower,   Chairman  of  the  Sunday-School 
Commission,  Diocese  of  New  York. 
VI.  The   Preparation    of    the    Sunday-School    Teacher.      By 
Walter  L.  Hervey,  Ph.  D.,  Examiner,  New  York  Board  of 
Education  ;  former  President,  Teachers  College. 
VII.  The    Religious    Content     of     the     Child  -  Mind.      By   G. 

Stanley  Hall,  D.D.,  President  of  Clark  University. 
VIII.  The  Use  of  Biography  in  Religious  Instruction.     By  Frank 
Morton   McMurray,     Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  the  Theory  of 
Teaching  in  Teachers  College,  Columbia  University. 
IX.  The    Use    of    Geography    in    Religious    Instruction.     Bj' 
Charles  Foster  Kent,  Ph.  D.,  Professor  of  Biblical  Litera- 
ture and  History  in  Brown  University. 
X.  The  Study  of  the  Bible  as  Literature.  By  Richard  G.  IMoul- 
TON,  M.  A.,  Professor  of  Literature  in  Chicago  University. 
Topical  Index. 

SOME  PRESS  OPINIONS 
' '  Perhaps  the  most  instructive  lecture  is  by  Prof.  W.  L.  Hervey 
on  '■  The  Preparation  of  the  Sunday-school  Teacher';  the  most  inter- 
esting is  by  Prcs.  G.  Stanley  Hall  on  the  '  Religious  Content  of 
the  Child-Mind';  and  the  most  helpful  Bible  study  is  by  Prof.  R.  G. 
Moulton  on  '  The  Study  of  the  Bible  as  Literature.'  The  two  lecture;; 
on  '  The  Use  of  Biography  and  Geography '  in  religious  instruction 
are  richly  suggestive." — Congregationalisi^  Boston, 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION.  3 

■'  A  new  volume  which  radiates  truth  and  is  stimulating." 

— Boston  Times. 

"  The  various  topics  are  discussed  by  men  who  are  authorities  on 
the  subjects  which  they  treat,  and  are  thoughtful  and  suggestive.  It  is 
an  honest  book  and  can  be  cordially  recommended  to  all  who  desire  to 
enlarge  their  mental  views." — Chrotiicle-Telegraph,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

"  The  year  1900  has  seen  the  publication  of  few  such  indispensa- 
ble volumes  as  this.  It  is  a  work  of  collaboration,  and  its  province 
is  religious  education  in  general,  and  Sunday-school  instruction  in 
particular.  All  men  and  women  ought  to  be  in  some  sense  religious 
teachers  of  the  young,  and  no  teacher  can  afford  to  leave  unread  the 
chapter  contributed  by  President  Stanley  Hall  on  the  religious  con- 
tent of  the  child-mind.  I^or  should  any  Sunday-school  teacher  omit 
to  peruse  the  chapters  by  Professors  TNIcMurray  and  Kent  on  the 
uses  respectively  of  biography  and  of  geography  in  religious  instruc- 
tion, or  that  perhaps  even  more  illuminative  one  by  Dr.  De  Garmo, 
comparing  religious  education  in  England,  France,  Germanj?',  and 
the  United  States.  Many  Sunday-school  workers  may  revise  their 
judgments  and  opinions  after  acquainting  themselves  with  Dr.  De 
Garmo's  statistics.  .  .  .  We  must  have  the  combined  efforts  of 
religious  and  secular  educators  in  order  to  produce  a  satisfactory 
Sunday-school.  The  essential  value  of  the  book  is  its  emphasis  on 
the  study  of  pedagogical  principles.  The  fact  that  religion  is  not 
taught  in  our  day-schools  made  it  imperative  that  our  Sunday-schools 
should  no  longer  belie  their  name  of  school.  They  should  do  effect- 
ive if  tardy  honor  to  the  teaching  function,  the  most  ancient  func- 
tion of  the  Church.  While  day-schools  have  been  advancing  on 
sound  psychological  principles  of  grading  and  choice  of  subject  mat- 
ter, our  Sunday-schools  have  inexcusably  remained  almost  at  an 
intellectual  standstill." — Outlook,  New  York. 

"  Some  of  the  best  work  now  done  in  Sunday-school  pedagogy  is 
to  be  credited  to  the  Sunday-school  Commission  of  the  Diocese  of 
New  York.  This  book  is  made  up  of  practical  lectures  delivered 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Commission,  at  St.  Bartholomew's  Church 
in  this  city,  during  the  fall  of  1899.  We  have  alluded  from  time  to 
time  to  the  good  work  done  by  the  Commission,  and  need  here  only 
note  that  these  addresses,  now  collected  in  an  attractive  permanent 
form,  should  be  obtained  by  all  who  wish  to  keep  up  with  the  latest 
and  best  thought  on  Sunday-school  teaching,  and  for  that  matter  on 
religious  instruction  generally." — Church  Econoinist,  New  York. 


4  PRINCIPLES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 

"  .  .  .  furnishes  most  valuable  food  for  thought  to  all 
interested  in  education,  whether  on  Sunday  or  the  week-day." 

—  The  Schoolmaster,  London. 

"  With  such  men  to  handle  such  topics  there  can  be  no  question 
as  to  the  value  of  the  book.  We  are  sorry  that  we  have  no  room  to 
give  extracts." — Herald,  Boston. 

"  These  are  now  gathered  in  a  convenient  volume,  and  will  prove 
a  most  important  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  parochial  and 
Sunday-schools.  An  attentive  reading  is  sure  to  convince  one  of  the 
truth  that  Bishop  Potter  states  in  his  introduction,  that  the  modern 
Church  does  not  recognize  its  responsibilities  or  improve  its  oppor- 
tunities as  a  teacher  of  the  young.  This  was  once  her  unchallenged 
domain.  It  may  be  that  she  abused  the  trust,  or  that  she  neglected 
it.  For  a  time  here  in  America  it  was  taken  from  her  almost  alto- 
gether. Even  the  Sunday-school  became  but  a  feeble  pretence  at  a 
school.  Of  the  manifold  efforts  to  lift  it  to  a  higher  plane,  these 
lectures  testify.  Seven  of  them  are  by  professors  or  college  presi- 
dents, three  by  clergymen,  all  of  them  by  men  interpenetrated  by  the 
religious  and  the  educational  spirit." — Churchman,  New  York. 

"...  these  subjects  are  treated  in  a  manner  refreshing  in  its 
directness  and  are  stimulating  in  the  possibilities  which  they  unfold. 
And  the  best  feature  of  all  is  that  not  a  single  suggestion  of  the 
many  which  are  made  involves  any  elaborate  machinery  or  other 
than  the  application  of  good  common-sense  to  matters  which  hereto- 
fore have  been  tacitly  relegated  to  a  domain  supposedly  outside  the 
pale  of  that  most  useful  faculty.  There  is  not  a  parent,  a  Sunday- 
school  teacher,  a  divinity  student,  or  a  rector  throughout  this  country 
who  would  fail  to  have  his  eyes  opened  to  new  and  more  efficient 
methods  of  religious  instruction  ...  by  a  careful  perusal 
of  this  book.  In  cost  and  size  it  is  within  the  means  of  every  one 
who  is  eager  to  aid  in  bringing  about  a  reform  in  methods  which, 
at  their  best,  are  at  present  notable  chiefly  for  their  insufficiency." 
— St.  Andrew's  Cross,  New  York  City, 

"  The  Christian  Knowledge  Lectures  upon  Principles  of  Religious 
Education  deserves  a  wide  circulation  an<l  careful  study  on  the  part 
of  all  Sunday-school  workers.  The  psychology  of  the  child  and 
courses  of  study  are  carefully  considered." 

■—The  Critic,  New  York. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 

"  The  volume  shows  how  wide  and  even  entertaining  religious 
teachings,  founded  on  the  Bible,  may  be  made.  Not  only  the 
preacher  and  teacher,  but  the  layman  can  derive  great  profit  from 
reading  it." — The  Record,  Philadelphia. 

"  This  volume  is  the  token  of  the  new  and  better  era  that  is 
surely  coming  in  the  religious  care  and  culture  of  our  children." 

— Epworth  Herald,  Chicago. 

"  These  lectures  are  treated  with  marked  freshness,  pertinence, 
and  power.     .     .     . 

"The  book  as  a  whole  is  one  of  remarkable  value.  Although 
there  are  some  ten  millions  of  pupils  in  the  Sunday-schools  of  the 
country,  there  are  many  millions  more  who  are  receiving  no  religious 
instruction  in  this  way,  if  indeed  in  any  other  way.  The  two  main 
questions  here  so  intelligently  discussed  are  how  to  supplement  the 
work  of  the  Sunday-school,  and  especially  how  to  improve  the  teach- 
ing work  in  the  Sunday-school." — Chicago  Tribune. 

"'Principles  of  Religious  Education '  is  a  scholarly,  reserved, 
careful,  scientific,  and  at  the  same  time  popular  treatment  of  religious 
education,  not  by  clergymen  alone,  but  by  the  foremost  professors  of 
philosophy  and  education  in  our  colleges.  The  aim  of  these  lectures 
has  been  to  find  what  there  is  in  the  child  that  demands  religious 
food ;  and  after  this  has  been  found  to  be  a  faculty  and  sense  of 
universal  extent,  to  discover  the  best  means  of  satisfying  the  need. 
The  book  is  original,  and  we  know  of  no  other  presenting  a  discussion 
of  such  great  importance  and  moment  in  a  manner  so  scholarly  and 
at  the  same  time  so  interesting  to  the  ordinary  reader." 

— Public  Opinion,  New  York. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  contributions  to  the  pedagogical 
and  religious  literature  of  the  year.  .  .  .  This  course  of  lectures 
is  distinctly  in  the  interest  of  a  new  awakening  and  improvement  in 
the  method  of  Sunday-school  work.  We  have  but  to  name  the 
lecturers  and  their  subjects,  to  show  the  great  importance  and  value 
of  the  book.  It  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  everyone  who  has 
any  conception  of  the  mission  of  the  Church  or  any  responsibility  for 
the  education  of  the  Christian  youth  of  the  land,  .  .  ,  This  is  a 
series  of  presentations  of  great  thoughts  from  great  minds  that  is 
worthy  the  careful  perusal  of  all  our  educators,  both  religious  and 
secular." — Educalion,  Boston. 


